A revised procedure to concentrate organic micro-pollutants in water

Publication

A new procedure to concentrate chemical pollutants in surface water samples is tested against 27 chemicals of varying physico-chemical and biological properties. A comparison is made to former procedures that have developed since 1994. The method is operational since 1996 in monitoring the toxicity of surface water in the framework of the project Geographic Representation of Ecotoxicological Effects of Substances.

The test substances include hydrophobic chemicals with a (polar) narcotic mode of action, pesticides, surfactants and organotin compounds. The recovery for the narcotic cocktail, including a.o. volatile and strongly adsorbing compounds, improved remarkebly: from 18 % to 60 %. The recovery of pesticides remained at the same level as the former procedure, i.e. 70 %. For the first time, surfactants and organotin compounds were included in the test programme.

The recovery of the anionic LAS and the nonionic octaethylene glycol monotetradecyl ether, which represent the majority of the surfactants used in the industrialized world was 40 % and 80 %, respectively. The recovery of organotin compounds was zero, which confirms that the method is not suitable for metals. It is essential that the result of the chemical part of the whole procedure suits the toxicity measurements because they constitute the actual measurement of the environmental sample. It was demonstrated that the concentrated water samples are compatible to bioassays. The ease of conductance is another demand that is put on the procedure. With respect to the former the method has improved considerably (less time consuming, lower use rate of expensive materials) and is therefore more suitable for monitoring toxic risk in surface water.

Authors

Struijs J , Kamp RE van de

Specifications

Publication title
A revised procedure to concentrate organic micro-pollutants in water
Publication date
9 November 2001
Publication type
Publication
Publication language
English
Product number
90784