Environmental laboratories are continuously pushed to deliver lower detection levels and faster sample throughput. A common analysis performed by these labs is triazine herbicides.

Often used for weed control, triazine herbicides have been found to have detrimental environmental and health effects.

“[Atrazine] kills weeds, impacts wildlife and may be carcinogenic,” according to Breast Cancer Fund. “The European Union banned Atrazine in 2005, but in the United States more than 75 million pounds of it is applied to corn and sorghum crops each year.”

“The toxic stuff seeps into groundwater and drinking water, and has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.”

To monitor and control human exposure to these herbicides, regulatory bodies have established allowable limits of triazines in drinking water and wastewater. This study presents two methods for triazine herbicide analysis. The method parameters follow the Environmental Protection Agency’s Method 536 for drinking water and Method 619 for wastewater, using LC/MS/MS and GC/MS respectively.

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