5.1 PFASs are widely used in various industrial and commercial products; they are persistent, bio-accumulative, and ubiquitous in the environment. PFASs have been reported to exhibit developmental toxicity, hepatotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and hormone disturbance. A draft Toxicological Profile for Perfluoroalkyls from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is available.6 PFASs have been detected in soils, sludges, surface, and drinking waters. Hence, there is a need for quick, easy, and robust method to determine these compounds at trace levels in water matrices for understanding of the sources and pathways of exposure.

5.2 This method has been investigated for use with reagent, surface, sludge and wastewaters for selected PFASs. This method has not been evaluated on drinking water matrices.

1.1 This procedure covers the determination of selected per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in a water matrix using liquid chromatography (LC) and detection with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). These analytes are qualitatively and quantitatively determined by this method. This method adheres to a technique known as selected reaction monitoring (SRM) or sometimes referred to as multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). This is not a drinking water method, performance of this test method has not been evaluated on drinking water matrices.

1.2 The Method Detection Limit (MDL)2 and Reporting Range3 for the target analytes are listed in Table 1. The target concentration for the reporting limit for this test method was 10 ng/L for most of the target analytes at the time of development.

TABLE 1 Method Detection Limit and Reporting Range

Analyte^A

MDL
(ng/L)

Reporting Ranges
(ng/L)

PFTreA^B

1.2

10 – 400

PFTriA^B

0.7

10 – 400

PFDoA^B

1.2

10 – 400

PFUnA^B

1.2

10 – 400

PFDA^B

1.4

10 – 400

PFOS^B

2.2

10 – 400

PFNA^B

1.1

10 – 400

PFecHS^B

1.9

10 – 400

PFOA^B

1.7

10 – 400

PFHxS^B

1.2

10 – 400

PFHpA^B

1.0

10 – 400

PFHxA^B

2.0

10 – 400

PFBS^B

0.8

10 – 400

PFPeA^B

4.6

50 – 2000

PFBA^B

4.6

50 – 2000

FHEA

92.9

300 – 8000

FOEA

106.8

300 – 8000

FDEA

47.2

200 – 8000

FOUEA

2.3

10 – 400

FHpPA

3.3

10 – 400

FHUEA

1.5

10 – 400

1.2.1 The reporting limit in this test method is the minimum value below which data are documented as non-detects. The reporting limit may be lowered providing your lab meets the minimum performance requirements of this test method at the lower concentrations, this method is performance based and modifications are allowed to improve performance. Analyte detections between the method detection limit and the reporting limit are estimated concentrations and are not reported following this test method. In most cases, the reporting limit is the concentration of the Level 1 calibration standard as shown in Table 4 for the PFASs after taking into account the 50 % dilution with methanol. It is above the Level 1 calibration concentration for FHEA and FOEA, these compounds can be identified at the Level 1 concentration but the standard deviation among replicates at this lower spike level resulted in a higher reporting limit.

1.3 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

1.4 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.5 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.