A Brief History of EPA’s Criteria for GC/MS Tuning Compounds
Oral Presentation
Prepared by H. McCarty, K. Roberts
CSC, 6361 Walker Lane, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA, 22310, United States
Contact Information: hmccarty@csc.com; 703-461-2392
ABSTRACT
The development of affordable radio frequency quadrupole mass spectrometers in the early 1970s supported early efforts by EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop reliable GC/MS procedures for the analysis of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds in drinking water and wastewater samples. EPA staff from ORD published the results of a study of decafluorotriphenylphosphine (DFTPP) conducted in 1973 and proposed its use as a mass calibrant for semivolatile organics. ORD also developed ion abundance criteria for the analysis of volatile organics by GC/MS, using bromofluorobenzene (BFB) as the mass calibrant.
When EPA’s Office of Water promulgated Methods 624 and 625 for NPDES compliance monitoring in 1984, the BFB and DFTPP tuning criteria took on the force of law. Other EPA Program Offices adapted the determinative portions of Methods 624 and 625 to create SW-846 Methods 8240 and 8260 and methods for the Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) and utilized similar tuning criteria.
Recent disruptions in the availability of high quality helium have lead to wide-scale efforts to substitute hydrogen as the carrier gas in GC methods used to monitor compliance with various EPA regulations, including those under the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Various EPA offices have heard reports of laboratories switching to hydrogen, but having trouble meeting the existing acceptance criteria for the BFB and DFTPP in many GC/MS methods from EPA and voluntary consensus standards bodies. Given the level of concern expressed by different EPA program offices, this seems an opportune time to review both the history and the intent of the existing GC/MS tuning requirements in methods approved or recommended by EPA programs and to suggest practical solutions.
Oral Presentation
Prepared by H. McCarty, K. Roberts
CSC, 6361 Walker Lane, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA, 22310, United States
Contact Information: hmccarty@csc.com; 703-461-2392
ABSTRACT
The development of affordable radio frequency quadrupole mass spectrometers in the early 1970s supported early efforts by EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop reliable GC/MS procedures for the analysis of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds in drinking water and wastewater samples. EPA staff from ORD published the results of a study of decafluorotriphenylphosphine (DFTPP) conducted in 1973 and proposed its use as a mass calibrant for semivolatile organics. ORD also developed ion abundance criteria for the analysis of volatile organics by GC/MS, using bromofluorobenzene (BFB) as the mass calibrant.
When EPA’s Office of Water promulgated Methods 624 and 625 for NPDES compliance monitoring in 1984, the BFB and DFTPP tuning criteria took on the force of law. Other EPA Program Offices adapted the determinative portions of Methods 624 and 625 to create SW-846 Methods 8240 and 8260 and methods for the Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) and utilized similar tuning criteria.
Recent disruptions in the availability of high quality helium have lead to wide-scale efforts to substitute hydrogen as the carrier gas in GC methods used to monitor compliance with various EPA regulations, including those under the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Various EPA offices have heard reports of laboratories switching to hydrogen, but having trouble meeting the existing acceptance criteria for the BFB and DFTPP in many GC/MS methods from EPA and voluntary consensus standards bodies. Given the level of concern expressed by different EPA program offices, this seems an opportune time to review both the history and the intent of the existing GC/MS tuning requirements in methods approved or recommended by EPA programs and to suggest practical solutions.
