Determination of atrazine in water by magnetic particle immunoassay: collaborative study

A collaborative study was performed to determine mean recovery and precision for analysis of atrazine in drinking and surface waters by immunoassay. The study design was based on the blind duplicate test plan for collaborative studies. Three blank waters (municipal drinking water, well water, and surface water) were spiked at 3 atrazine levels. Two water samples with naturally incurred atrazine loads were also spiked with atrazine at 3 levels. In the enzyme-linked immunoassay method, the water sample is mixed with a pesticide-enzyme conjugate and added to paramagnetic particles with triazine-specific antibodies attached. After separation of antibody-bound atrazine and atrazine-enzyme conjugate from free components, the bound enzyme conjugate catalyzes a reaction producing a colored end product. The color developed is inversely proportional to the original concentration of atrazine in the water sample. Fourteen laboratories participated in the collaborative study. Data were analyzed for repeatability and reproducibility, and average recoveries at the spike levels were calculated. Over the concentration range tested, the mean recovery of atrazine spiked into blank and pesticide-contaminated waters was 104%. Overall RSDR averaged about 40% for atrazine concentrations near the method detection limit (0.05 microgram/L) and about 15% at concentrations above 5 times the detection limit (0.25 microgram/L). Corresponding single-analyst RSDr values were 24 and 10%. Recovery and precision for the 3 blank water matrixes and the waters that had been naturally contaminated with atrazine showed no significant differences. The magnetic particle immunoassay for determination of atrazine in water has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL.