Evaluation of the state-of-the-art of butyl- and phenyltin compound determinations in freshwater sediment prior to certification of a reference material

In order to control the quality of butyl- and phenyltin compound determinations in sediment, the Standards, Measurements and Testing Programme (formerly BCR) of the European Commission has started a project, the final aim of which is to certify a freshwater sediment for its contents of a range of organotin compounds (mono-, di- and tributyltin, and mono-, di- and triphenyltin). The first part of this project involved an interlaboratory study which aimed to test the feasibility of preparation of candidate freshwater sediment reference material and to detect and remove most of the pitfalls observed in organotin determinations. This paper presents the main results of this interlaboratory study carried out prior to the certification campaign. The agreement obtained among laboratories for the six compounds determined was considered to reflect the state-of-the-art and was encouraging enough to decide upon the organisation of a certification campaign, which will be concluded in June 1999.