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Trueness, Precision, and Detectability for Sampling and Analysis of Organic Species in Airborne Particulate Matter
Citation:
TURLINGTON, J., D. A. OLSON, L. STOCKBURGER, AND S. R. MCDOW. Trueness, Precision, and Detectability for Sampling and Analysis of Organic Species in Airborne Particulate Matter. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. Springer, New York, NY, 397(6):07/15/2010, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
Recovery. precision, limits of detection and quantitation, blank levels, calibration linearity, and agreement with certified reference materials were determined for two classes of organic components of airborne particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and hopanes using typical sampling and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis methods. These determinations were based on initial method proficiency tests and on-going internal quality control procedures. Recoveries generally ranged from 75% to 85% for all target analytes and collocated sample precision estimates were generally better than 20% for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and better than 25% for hopanes. Results indicated substantial differences in data quality between the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and hopanes. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons demonstrated better collocated precision, lower method detection limits, lower blank levels, and better agreement with certified reference materials than the hopanes. The most serious area of concern was the disagreement between measured and expected values in the standard reference materials for hopanes. With this exception, good data quality was demonstrated for all target analytes on all other data quality indicators.
URLs/Downloads:
Trueness, Precision, and Detectability for Sampling and Analysis of Organic Species in Airborne Particulate Matter (PDF, NA pp, 6362 KB, about PDF)Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
