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MEASUREMENT OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS BY THE US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY COMPENDIUM METHOD TO-17 - EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
Citation:
McClenny, W A. AND M Colon. MEASUREMENT OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS BY THE US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY COMPENDIUM METHOD TO-17 - EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE CRITERIA. JOURNAL OF CHROMATOGRAPHY A 813(2):101-111, (1998).
Description:
An evaluation of performance criteria for US Environmental Protection Agency Compendium Method TO-17 for monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air has been accomplished. The method is a solid adsorbent-based sampling and analytical procedure including performance criteria for four merit parameters. These are: (1) the method detection limit (MDL); (2) the method precision; (3) the agreement between two samples taken at different flow-rates over the same time period [a distributed volume pair (DVP)]; and (4) audit accuracy. A two-adsorbent tube packing of Carbotrap and Carboxen 1000 (Supelco) was tested. Synthetic mixtures containing 41 compounds at concentrations of 10 ppb (v/v) or 2 ppb (v/v) each in humidified zero air, and indoor air from a personal residence, were sampled for 1-h periods during which 1-1 and 4-1 samples were obtained simultaneously. For synthetic samples, the MDL was determined to be less than or equal to 0.5 ppb (v/v) for 29 of the 41 compounds examined for samples at 47% relative humidity (RH), and for 27 of 41 compounds at 85% RH. The method precision at both 2 and 10 ppb (v/v) was less than or equal to 20% for 90+% of the samples using five sampling runs and the DVP samples were within 25% for 80% of the samples. For the indoor samples, 26 target compounds were tentatively identified and 12 unknowns were detected; all but 10% of these compounds met the DVP criteria.
This paper has been reviewed in accordance with the US Environmental Protection Agency's peer and administrative review policies and approved for presentation and publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.