Impact of cleaning procedures and type of materials on the measure of 20 bisphenols in surface water samples

Céline Ferret (1) , Pawel Rostkowski (2) , Bénédicte Lepot (1) , Fabrizio Botta (1)

1 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques
2 NILU - Norwegian Institute for Air Research

BPA is one of the most produced and used chemicals worldwide, even though it was a recognized synthetic estrogen. About 70% of BPA production (3.4 million tons per year) is used to produce polycarbonate plastics used in a variety of common products. Consequently, during sampling operation in river, if the operator uses a plastic bucket, a risk of sample precontamination can be observed. This study will give some warnings on the cleaning steps and on which material needs to be used during water sampling for environmental monitoring of bisphenols. Material testing and on-field sampling were performed by INERIS. 5 different sampling methods were used on a reference site and in laboratory: direct sampling in the river; indirect with a plastic bucket, a horizontal PFTE bucket, a telescopic rod and vial and a new bucket (uncleaned). Two types of tests were performed on these 4 types of sampling material : A) different rinsing process of bucket/bottles before sampling in laboratory. This process was repeated twice and samples were analysed after the 1st and after the 2nd process B) on-site sampling with the cleaning process validated during the 1st test in laboratory. A new with plastic bucket (used immediately after buying and without cleaning) was also tested. Analyses were carried out at NILU on 20 bisphenols. Firstly, this study displays a risk of precontamination not for all bisphenols, but for 9 out of 20 (essentially Bisphenol A and bisphenol BP). This study suggests a potential contamination of the sample by bisphenol if the sampling operator do not apply a multiple and correct cleaning procedure on the laboratory before field operations. Authors also observed that samples collected with a non-rinsed plastic bucket were highly contaminated, especially for bisphenol A. Hovewer, in this study concentrations were very low (high sensibility of analytical method) but still very far from PNEC threshold (0,2 µg/L for Bisphenol A).In conclusion, AQUAREF reccomends a strict cleaning procedure and few field blanks before to collect field sample for bisphenols investigations.

Domains: Environmental Sciences

Céline Ferret, Pawel Rostkowski, Bénédicte Lepot, Fabrizio Botta. Impact of cleaning procedures and type of materials on the measure of 20 bisphenols in surface water samples. 27. SETAC Europe annual meeting, May 2017, Bruxelles, France. ⟨ineris-01863854⟩