Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method for separation and detection of endocrine disruptors from environmental water samples

The simultaneous determination of endocrine disrupters (phenols) has been developed using a GC-MS method. Endocrine disrupters in various water samples, were extracted using a liquid-liquid extraction process, Acidification pH 2.0-3.0 and salting (NaBr) of water samples really enhance the extraction process. The extraction of endocrine disrupters was done and experimented twice with 50 mi of "dichloromethane". The volume was concentrated from 100 to 1 ml. Internal standard of anthracene was also added to the concentrated volumes followed by derivatization with N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) to form phenol-trimethylsilylate (phenol-TMS) derivative. The phenol-TMS derivative was analyzed by GC-MS method. The applied concentrated range was over 10-1000 ng/ml for the total phenols. The recovery test ranged from 59.5 to 88.6% with relative standard deviations between 1.6 and 10.3% of 500 ng/ml of the standard phenols spiked to the water sample and the detection limit was 1 ng/ml. The proposed method was applied satisfactory to the determination of total endocrine disruptors in synthetic mixtures and different types of water sample, such as river, tap and distilled waters, previously spiked with different amounts of these chemicals. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.