Detection of Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) in Drinking Water Following EPA 533Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Environment
Poster Presentation
Prepared by A. Belunis1, W. LaCourse2
1 - University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MARYLAND, 21250, United States
2 - University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MARYLAND, 21250, United States
Contact Information: [email protected]; 908-334-4997
ABSTRACT
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of manmade chemicals developed in the 1940s. The persistent nature of PFAS can lead to accumulation throughout the environment as well as the serum and plasma of both wildlife and humans. Growing health concerns have created the critical need to reliability validate regulatory methods on commercially available instrumentation. The EPA has developed method 533 for the detection of 25 PFAS by isotope dilution anion exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Method 533 is aimed at including multiple short-chain PFAS that are difficult to measure by method 537.1. Method modifications included drastic reduction of LC runtime and optimization of MS/MS parameters. Installations of a delay column and PTFE free tubing were necessary to limit potential background contamination. All calibration curves (ranging from roughly 5-25,000 ng/L) had a correlation coefficient (R2) greater than 0.99. The mean recovery for all analytes and surrogates was 95-125% and the %RSD for all analytes was below 11% in reagent water. The lowest concentration minimum reporting levels (LCMRLs) and detection limits (DLs) were calculated using seven laboratory fortified blanks (LFBs) at five different fortification levels (1, 4, 10, 20, and 80 ng/L). LCRMLs range between 1.0-5.2 ng/L and DLs range between 0.6-1.9 ng/L. This presentation shows the use of the PerkinElmer QSight 210 system for method validation of 533 and the detection of PFAS in various drinking water sources.
