Determination of polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediment and biota.

Abstract

This document provides advice on the analysis of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in biota and sediment. The determination of PBDEs in sediment and biota generally involves extraction with organic solvents, clean‐up, and gas chromatographic separation with mass‐spectrometric detection. All stages of the procedure are susceptible to insufficient recovery and/or contamination. Therefore, quality‐control procedures are important to check the method’s performance. These guidelines are intended to encourage and assist analytical chemists to reconsider their methods and to improve their procedures and/or the associated quality‐control measures where necessary.