DIN 38407-47:2017-07

Pharmaceuticals are essential for human and animal health. Through application or improper disposal, active pharmaceutical ingredients enter the water cycle unchanged or transformed. On the one hand, this happens via municipal wastewater, which is treated in sewage treatment plants. The active pharmaceutical ingredients and their transformation products are not completely removed from the water. On the other hand, active pharmaceutical ingredients and their transformation products reach soils via the spreading of liquid manure and, depending on the nature of the soil and the active ingredients, enter the water body. Active pharmaceutical ingredients and their transformation products are therefore found in surface and groundwater as well as in treated wastewater. This standard describes a liquid chromatographic method with mass spectrometric detection for the determination of selected active pharmaceutical ingredients. This standard specifies a method for the determination of selected active pharmaceutical ingredients and transformation products as well as other organic substances in drinking water, groundwater and surface water in mass concentrations = 0,025 µg/l or in treated wastewater in mass concentrations = 0,050 µg/l. The lower application limits of the method may vary depending on the sensitivity of the equipment used and the matrix of the sample. The method can be used to determine other organic substances or in other types of water if its accuracy has been tested and proven in individual cases. This document has been prepared by Working Group NA 119-01-03-02-16 AK "LC-MS/MS-Verfahren" ("LC-MS/MS methods" of Working Committee NA 119-01-03 AA "Wasseruntersuchung" (Water examination) of DIN Standards Committee Water Practice (NAW).