Development of a simultaneous analytical method for agricultural chemicals in drinking water using GC/MS

Abstract

We studied the simultaneous analytical method with GC/MS for the 60 agricultural chemicals which are the candidate of “Complimentary Items” in drinking water. In the GC/MS measurement for the mixture of standard solution of agricultural chemicals, the linearity of a calibration curve and the reproducibility of repetitive measurements were satisfactory. The quantification limits of all 59 substances, to which the desired values can be estimated based on the ADI, were lower than the corresponding desired values. Furthermore, quantification limits of 56 substances were lower than 1/100 of the corresponding desired values. In the recovery tests using purified water and tap water (with or without dechlorination), the recovery rates were correlated to the values of LogP_ow of each agricultural chemical. Satisfactory recovery rates (70 to 120%) were obtained in 43 substances among 60 substances tested. In order to expand the GC/MS simultaneous analysis method developed in present study as an official analytical methods of drinking water, validation test of this method is should be carried out in the future.