Results of an inter-laboratory PFAS study based on real world samples

Data Quality
Oral Presentation

Prepared by

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ABSTRACT

The Dow Chemical Company has implemented a qualification system for environmental contract laboratories which is complementary to the standard laboratory qualification and certification process of using commercial PT samples as part of their accreditation. This system uses blended, diluted, and intensively homogenized real water samples which are submitted annually to the laboratories in replicates and dilutions for analysis of the most common environmental parameters such as metals, volatile and semi-volatile organic components. This qualification process has been applied for several years and addresses potential inherent matrix effects which commercial PT samples (spiked water) or reference material might not, necessarily, adequately cover.
This concept of sending non-spiked, blended samples to the laboratories for quality evaluation has now been used for the analysis of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). Due to rapidly increasing interest in these components, standards which globally span a wide range of concentrations, methods which are in flux in terms of list of analytes, limits of quantitation and detection, we intend to understand the data variability between laboratories in North America and Europe
In addition, a laboratory water sample in which common polyfluorinated polymer containing accessories were soaked, was submitted to understand the potential of contamination in the laboratory.