IDENTIFICATION OF CHLORDANE RELATED-COMPOUNDS AS POTENTIAL INTERFERENCES TO PCDFS IN THE HRGC HRMS ANALYSIS OF AMBIENT AIR SAMPLES IN JAPAN/

Interferences were observed during the analysis of polychlorodibenzofu rans (PCDFs) in ambient air by HRGC/HRMS. An alternative mode of HRGC/ HRMS-SIM acquisition, mass peak profile monitoring (MP) was used to ob tain information on the identities of the interfering species. The int erferences were identified as chlordane and chlordane related species. The same species may also interfere with the analysis of poly-chloron aphthalenes (PCNs), and have been observed in a number of other enviro nmental samples. Addition of a carbon column chromatographic step to t he clean-up procedure enabled these interferences to be reduced. Care is still required if background levels of chlordane and chlordane rela ted compounds are high.