Method development for the analysis of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water using solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

1,4-Dioxane has been identified as a probable human carcinogen and an emerging contaminant in drinking water. The United States Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA) National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) has developed a method for the analysis of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water at ng/L concentrations. The method consists of an activated carbon solid-phase extraction of 500-mL or 100-mL water samples using dichloromethane as the elution solvent. The extracts are analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. In the NERL laboratory, recovery of 1,4-dioxane ranged from 94-110% in fortified laboratory reagent water and recoveries of 96-102% were demonstrated for fortified drinking water samples. The relative standard deviations for replicate analyses were less than 6% at concentrations exceeding the minimum reporting level.