A Dissolved / Particulate Baseline Study of PAHs in Particulate Laden Water

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a worldwide federation of national standards solicited their technical committees to develop a new method for analyzing Poly-Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in particulate laden water. PAHs are of great environmental concern due to their carcinogenic impact. When water samples are extracted and analyzed for PAH’s, many methods require the water sample to first be filtered, such that the particulate matter is removed. As many water samples extracted for PAH’s are surface water, river water, ground water, waste water, or water with suspended material, it is desirable to have an analytical method that can handle the “whole” water sample. This application note describes a study to develop an SPE disk method that could handle “whole” water samples (including particulates and suspended matter).