Determination of PBDEs in River Water Utilizing Automated SPE and Atlantic™ C18 SPE Disks in Conformance with EU Standards at IRSA

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a worldwide contamination problem. Structurally similar to PCBs, these compounds are long-lived in the environment and can bio-accumulate throughout the food chain. The importance of monitoring and controlling PBDEs became apparent as levels were seen to be rising rapidly in human tissues, as evidenced by studies of human breast milk, but current methods are labor intensive, use large amounts of solvent, and require contaminant free glassware. This application note establishes a new procedure for the determination of PBDE congeners in aqueous samples ranging from the low ng/L PPT range, with a minimum of organic solvent consumption, while also conforming to the European Union standards.