Jp. Sherry et A. Borgmann, ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY TECHNIQUES FOR THE DETECTION OF ATRAZINE IN WATER SAMPLES - EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIAL TUBE BASED ASSAY, Chemosphere, 26(12), 1993, pp. 2173-2184
Environmental immunoassays can help lower the operating costs and impr
ove the effectiveness of residue laboratories. The present study asses
ses the ability of a commercially available enzyme immunoassay (EIA) t
o detect triazine herbicides in water. The tube based EIA could detect
atrazine in lake and river water with detection limits of 62 pg/mL an
d 180 pg/mL respectively. The assay's ability to quantify atrazine in
a set of 124 water samples taken from many parts of Canada was compare
d with a reference method that used gas chromatographic separation com
bined with a nitrogen phosphorous detector (GC-NPD) (R-0.919). A 71 %
reduction in analytical load was achieved at a threshold concentration
of 1 ng/mL. There were 2.4 % false negative and 0.8 % false positive
results associated with that load reduction. The variability of the as
say control parameters was generally within two standard deviations of
the mean response for 65 assays. The EIA for atrazine is recommended
for use as a screening technique and as an inexpensive way to monitor
triazine levels in waters that are known to be contaminated with those
herbicides.