Chromatography Forum

Good day dear friends:

I have a question about the analysis of Polychlorinated byphenyls (PCB´s) in water samples, which PCB´s should be monitor in environmental samples?

I have been reading different papers and in some of them mention that should be monitor the aroclor 1242, 1248, 1254 and 1260. Others mentions that is enough to monitor the PCB´s 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153 and 180.

We have both GC/MS and GC-uECD equipments at our lab, and we would like to validate our procedure in transformer oils, and extend the validation to water and soil samples, but monitoring the rights analytes.

Also, if someone has information about the permitted levels it will be very helpful

Thank you very much and regards!!

Hello,

If you're in the US you should take a look at EPA methods. You will not only find a list of the PCBs monitored in water, but also full methods, from extraction to GC-MS.

If you're in a different country, refer to your national institute for environmental monitoring.

As Rndirk says, it depends on the legislation under which you are analysing. Some directives are interested in the sum of 6 particular congeners only, some use the sum of 7.

Also the limits will probably differ depending on the matrix type and the overarching legislation too.

Depending on what type of water it is, take a look at EPA 508 & 608. EPA 508 deals with strictly potable water while EPA 608 deals with non potable water. With the matrices you mentioned I would look at SW846. Method 8082 deals with pretty much any matrix except potable water. The aroclors you will find in these methods are 1016, 1260, 1221, 1232, 1242, 1248, 1254. These are the aroclors of interest that require environmental monitoring. You may also find some industries needing to monitor for Aroclor 1262 & 1268 but they are much less common.

The methods I mentioned above are GC-ECD methods and are very straight forward. If you have any specific questions don't be afraid to ask. My lab analyzes thousands of PCB samples a year. Matrices include anything you can think of.

Dear friends:

Thank you very much for your answers. I´m in South America, and unfortunately I haven´t found any legislation in my country that refers specifically which PCB´s must be monitor.

As my country takes part in the Stockholm convention, it will be necessary to make the PCB´s monitoring not only in the transformers oils, but also, different kind of water samples, soil and surface.

That´s why our lab wanted to validate the methodology and monitor the corresponding PCB´s to each matrix and taking a making some research we found that different papers had different opinions about this issue, that´s why I wanted to know your opinion about this.

Thank you very much!