Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are an emerging class of organic contaminants of global concern.
Perflorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also abbreviated C8) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are
two primary PFCs. PFOA and PFOS are reportedly persistent in the environment and
bioaccumulate with controversial adverse health effects to wildlife and people. According to
USEPA's report, PFOA is a "likely" human carcinogen and can remain in human body for up to
four years. Toxicity tests have raised concerns about potential developmental, reproductive, and
systematic effects of PFOS. However, the harmful exposure levels are still in debate and further
risk assessment is required to understand the toxicity of PFOA and PFOS. Measuring PFOA and PFOS concentrations in drinking waters requires a highly sensitive analytical method. One of major problems
associated with trace level analysis of PFOA and PFOS is background contamination in the
analytical blanks. The background may result from the Teflon parts that are often used in many
analytical instruments, solvent generation and purification systems, and sample collection and
preparation devices. This work presents a highly sensitive liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/MS/MS) method, coupled with an effective solid-phase
extraction (SPE) sample preparation technique, to meet the need for the measurement of
trace level PFOA and PFOS in drinking waters. In this research, drinking water samples from
different geographic regions throughout the United States were analyzed to provide
contamination levels of PFOA and PFOS. The internal standard (IS) was 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-4-
(pentafluorophenyl)phenol. The surrogate standard (SS) was 4'-trifluoromethyl)-2-
biphenylcarboxylic acid. Sample preparation and analysis, accuracy, precision, and method detection limits are all discussed. Includes 8 references, tables.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 230 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 3 |
| Published : | 06/01/2006 |
