Development and implementation of a Di-MS based method with full uncertainty estimate to achieve measurement of pharmaceutical residus in natural waters

¹ LNE, DMSI, Pôle Chimie Biologie 1 rue Gaston Boissier 75724 PARIS Cedex 15
² Unviversité de Bordeaux, UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 PESSAC CEDEX
³ Eau de Paris, DRDQE, 33 avenue Jean Jaurès, 94200 Ivry sur Seine

Corresponding author: author@email.org

Abstract

The need for effective chemical water monitoring is evident. Indeed the overall management and decision making system driven by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and other European water policies is strongly dependent on monitoring data. Because the overall decision making process relies, most of the time, on acquired data, it puts considerable pressures on the display of high quality chemical environmental measurements. However, performing fit for purpose measurements implies i) the demonstration of their metrological traceability ii), the evidence of their achievement thanks to accurate and sensitive analytical methods and iii) their statement with a realistic estimate of expanded uncertainty are thoroughly addressed. Concern regarding the presence of potentially active substances in surface waters was brought up by the end of the 90s. Intensive monitoring programs have revealed a chronic state of contamination of water systems by numerous molecules; pharmaceuticals have been highlighted as one of first concern for French aquatic system. This work demonstrates the consequences that (i) the sampling strategy and (ii) methodological and (iii) metrological laboratory choices may have on the measurements’ result. It reemphasizes that the main contribution to the uncertainty of measurement is linked to sampling uncertainty