ANALYSES OF POLYCHLORINATED-BIPHENYLS AND ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS IN DRINKING-WATER

A method was developed to analyse organic contaminants at trace levels in ground and drinkingwater. It is shown that usual methods, involving small sample volumes and insufficient sample clean-up, are inadequate to perform reliable analyses. The concentrations of chlorobiphenyls in the drinkingwater samples (0.1-50 pg/l) were all below the legal limits, but they were higher than in water of the North and Baltic Seas, which are considered to be polluted. It is argued that the maximum levels as determined by law, are too high, taking into account analytical feasibility and the high toxicities of some chlorobiphenyls detected in ground- and drinkingwater.