PFAS Testing in Water: A Practical Cheat Sheet for Labs

PFAS in water testing is unforgiving: target lists vary by matrix, action levels are low, and background contamination can creep in from places you don’t expect – tubing, caps, wash solvents, even autosampler parts.

To help labs move faster with fewer reruns, Agilent has created a one-page quick reference: “PFAS Testing in Water” – built for analysts and QA/QC teams working across drinking water, ambient waters, municipal wastewater, and industrial wastewater.

What the cheat sheet helps you align on:

• Which method/targets to start with (by water type):
  Potable water: EPA 537.1 or 533 (add HFPO-DA where required).
  Nonpotable waters: EPA 1633 (expand with site-specific precursors as needed).
  Rapid screening: EPA 8327 (dilute-and-shoot).
• Workflow basics that protect low-ng/L results: preserving per program and keeping pH ~6–7, adding extracted internal standards up front, SPE choices (e.g., WAX SPE for many aqueous matrices), and when carbon polishing is useful for interferences.
• QA/QC essentials you’ll be asked for: isotope dilution strategy (extracted + nonextracted internal standards), multi-point calibration with 1/x weighting, CCVs every 10–20 injections, procedural/reagent blanks each batch, matrix spikes/duplicates, and matrix-specific MDL/LOQ verification.
• Common pitfalls that cause bad data: PFAS background from labware/flowpath, surrogates added too late, carryover after high hits without robust blanks/washes, loss of short chains from unsuitable reconstitution solvent, unscreened solvent/vial lots, and pH drift outside method windows.
• Reporting that stands up to review: report in ng/L with required qualifiers, include method ID/analyte list/matrix LOQs/uncertainty/surrogate recoveries, apply required sum rules, and document deviations.

Fill the form and Download the PFAS cheat sheet – “PFAS Testing in Water”

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