Laboratory intercomparison study on the analysis of short-chain chlorinated paraffins in an extract of industrial soil

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) comprise a class of organic pollutants used in many industrial applications and released into the environment. The analytical determination of SCCPs is very challenging. Although there is at present no fully validated measurement procedure that might be applied in routine monitoring, the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) has required regular monitoring of this class of compounds at river-basin scale since 2007. To assess the status quo of the analysis of SCCPs in relation to the requirements of the WFD, we organized an interlaboratory comparison on the quantification of SCCPs in an extract of an industrial soil. Six laboratories participated in the exercise using three different techniques [i.e. gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) in electron-capture negative ionization mode, GC with atomic emission detection, and carbon-skeleton GC-MS]. The results reported were in the range 8.5-3200 mg/L. This confirms that reliable quantification of SCCPs is still very difficult to achieve and that the comparability of SCCP data reported to the European Commission is at least questionable.