Pj. Nyman et al., SCREENING METHOD FOR THE GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC MASS-SPECTROMETRIC DETERMINATION OF MICROGRAM LITRE LEVELS OF BROMATE IN BOTTLED WATER/, Food additives and contaminants, 13(6), 1996, pp. 623-631
Bromate can be formed as a by-product of ozone treatment that is somet
imes used for the disinfection of municipal water supplies and bottled
waters. The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a maximum
contaminant level (MCL) of 10 mu g/l for bromate in public drinking w
ater. Should the proposed MCL for bromate become final, it may then be
considered for adoption as a bottled water quality standard by the US
Food and Drug Administration. This paper reports the development of a
gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) method for the determi
nation of parts-per-billion (mu g/l) levels of bromate (BrO3-) in bott
led water. The GC/MS method was validated by using distilled and deion
ized Milli-Q(R) water; detection limits, quantitation limits, and reco
veries were determined and identities were confirmed by MS on the basi
s of analyses of test portions fortified with BrO3- at 0.8, 3.8, 7.7,
1.5, and 46 mu g/l. The method also was evaluated on the basis of reco
veries determined for two commercial brands of bottled water fortified
with BrO at 3.8 and 7.7 mu g/l and two commercial brands fortified at
0.8, 3.8, and 7.7 mu g/l. For the Milli-Q(R) water, recoveries ranged
from 100 to 121%; for the fortified commercial products, recoveries r
anged from 87 to 115%. The limits of detection and quantitation were d
etermined to be 0.4 and 0.7 mu g/l, respectively. Several commerical b
rands of bottled water were analysed, and BrO3- was found in these pro
ducts at levels ranging from none to 38 mu g/l.