Validation of an Analytical Method of Simultaneous Determination of 140 Agricultural Chemicals in Drinking Water by Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS)

Abstract

To expand the liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) analysis method for the simultaneous determination of 140 agricultural chemicals, which was developed in the previous study as an official analytical method of analyzing drinking water in Japan, we have conducted verification tests along with 11 organizations other than the National Institute of Health Sciences to confirm the validity of the analytical method using different apparatus. The validity of the analytical method was evaluated based on the results of the recovery tests performed with two set points, that is, 1/10 of the desired value and 1/100 of the desired value of each agricultural chemical in the Japanese Waterworks Act. For 117 agricultural chemicals, the quantification limits were lower than 1/100 of the desired values of each chemical, and the accuracy (recovery rates) and repeatability of analysis by the majority of the testing organizations satisfied the criteria in the guideline for the validation of the testing method for drinking water provided by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. Therefore, we judged that the simultaneous analytical method that we developed in the present study is applicable to the analysis of the 117 agricultural chemicals in drinking water.