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Occurrence of Perchlorate in Drinking Water and Seawater in South Korea

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Abstract

Concentrations of perchlorate were determined by both liquid-chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and ion chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (IC-MS/MS) in 520 tap-water, 48 bottled-water, and 9 seawater samples obtained or purchased from >100 different locations in South Korea. The method detection limits were 0.013 μg/L for LC-MS and 0.005 μg/L for IC-MS/MS, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.10 μg/L for LC-MS and 0.032 μg/L for IC-MS/MS. Perchlorate was detected in most (80%) of the tap-water samples, with concentrations higher than the LOQ; the concentrations ranged from <1.0 to 6.1 μg/L (mean 0.56). Perchlorate was detected by IC-MS/MS in many (n = 23) of the bottled-water samples, with concentrations higher then the LOQ, ranging from 0.04 to 0.29 μg/L (mean 0.07 ± 0.01). The concentrations of perchlorate in all seawater samples collected from the various locations were higher than the LOQ, with a mean concentration of 1.15 ± 0.01 μg/L (maximum 6.11 and minimum 0.11). This study provides further evidence that drinking-water sources have been contaminated by perchlorate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study on perchlorate assessment in drinking water and seawater in South Korea.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (20090072035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Korea Army Academy at Young-Cheon, 135-1, Changhari, Kokyungmeon, Young-cheon, Gyeongbuk, 770-849, South Korea

    Namguk Her & Hyunchan Jeong

  2. Beautiful Environment Construction Co., Ltd., Mega Center, 190-1, Jung-won, Seongnam, 462-721, Korea

    Jongsung Kim

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Yeomin Yoon

Authors
  1. Namguk Her
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  2. Hyunchan Jeong
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  3. Jongsung Kim
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  4. Yeomin Yoon
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Correspondence to Yeomin Yoon.

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Her, N., Jeong, H., Kim, J. et al. Occurrence of Perchlorate in Drinking Water and Seawater in South Korea. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 61, 166–172 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-010-9616-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-010-9616-0

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