Interlaboratory comparison exercise for the analysis of PCDD/Fs in samples of digested sewage sludge

Five UK laboratories participated in a study designed to explore the principal sources of interlaboratory variation in the analysis of PCDD/Fs in sewage sludge. Samples of wet sludge, dry sludge, toluene extract of sludge and cleaned extract of sludge were prepared by an organising laboratory. The samples were analysed in duplicate by each laboratory along with a solution of PCDD/F standards and reference sediment. Mean coefficients of variation between laboratories were 45% for the wet sludge, 33% for the dry sludge, 32% for the extract of sludge, 36% for the cleaned extract of sludge, 32% for the reference sediment and 28% for the standard solution. The results were subjected to statistical analysis, which showed that there was no specific part of the analysis that introduced a dominant part of the variation. The spread of data generated from the analysis of wet sludge samples was not appreciably greater than the spread for the analysis of cleaned extracts. Thus the drying, extraction and clean up processes in the PCDD/F analysis of wet sludge did not have a dramatic effect on the interlaboratory variation.