[Zurück]

R. Morabito, C. Brunori, F. Ulberth, M. Ricci, O. Bercaru, A. Sahuquillo, H. Muntau, E. Fernandez-Diez, E. Rosenberg, T. Simonart:
"SWIFT-WFD Project - Activity 2.2: Preparation of reference materials (RMs) for Water Analysis";
Poster: Water Status Monitoring under the WFD Conference, Lille, Frankreich; 14.03.2007 - 17.03.2007.

The quality control (QC) of monitoring measurements requires various types of tools for internal (e.g. calibrants, reference materials) and external quality control (interlaboratory proficiency testing). Within the SWIFT-WFD Project, financed by EC, a series of activities are dedicated to review the existing QC tools related to the parameters and water matrices covered by the Water Framework Directive, to produce a provision of missing tools (reference materials of various types of waters, quality control kits) to be used in a series of Proficiency Testing schemes (PTs) aiming to the evaluation of the state-of-the-art of the analytical performance of European laboratories involved in the analysis of primary pollutants listed in the WFD and to support the establishment of a permanent network of PTs organized at European and National level. The activities envisaged the preparation of 3 sets of reference materials and calibrants/blind solutions and, consequently, the organization of 3 SWIFT-WFD PTs at European scale and, optionally, at national level.
The produced RMs were dedicated to the determination of both inorganic analytes (trace elements, and major components) and organic compounds (PAHs and pesticides), with particular attention to the analytes included in the WFD list of priority pollutants.
With regard to RMs for organic compounds, eight RMs (including blind solutions and spiking solutions) were delivered and fully characterized in terms of homogeneity and stability of the target analytes: four RMs for PAHs and four RMs for pesticides. Batch samples were collected in February 2005 at the Brevilles spring (FR) and in October 2005 at the Ruhr affluent of River Rhine (DE) under the responsibility of Lithos Geosciences (IT).
The production of matrix reference materials was carried out by the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), while the University of Barcelona took care of the production of blind solutions and spiking solutions for all materials at fortified levels. Only in case of material RM08, the fortification was achieved by using pesticide pills prepared upon specific requirements and characterized by the Institute Pasteur de Lille (FR). The produced RMs were been fully characterized for homogeneity and stability. Characterization analyses were carried out by University of Wien (AT) and IRMM (BE).
The description of sampling and production of the RMs as well as full details on homogeneity and stability are given.