China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment on April 15 released three sets of national ecological and environmental standards called “Water quality—Determination of 6 phthalate esters (PAEs) —Liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry”, “Soil and sediment—Determination of 20 polybrominated biphenyls—Gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry” and “Technical specifications for surface water environmental quality monitoring”, respectively. The last set of standards will come into effect on Aug. 1 and the other two on Nov. 1.
The first set of standards sets out how to measure PAEs in surface water, groundwater, domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater and seawater. It stipulates measuring methods using liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry.
The second set sets out how to measure 20 types of polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), such as 2-bromobiphenyl, in soil and sediment by gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry.