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Estimating percentiles from composite environmental samples when all observations are nondetectable

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Abstract

Many environmental sampling problems involve some specified regulatory or contractual limit (RL). Often the interest is in estimating the percentile of the underlying contaminant concentration distribution corresponding to RL. The focus of this paper is on obtaining a point estimate and a lower confidence limit for that percentile when all observations are nondetectable, with the ith observation known to be less than some detection limit DLI, where DLi≤ RL. Since composite samples are being considered, it is not unreasonable to assume an underlying normal distribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State College, Desmatics, Inc., PO Box 618, PA, 16804, USA

    Kevin C. Burns

Authors
  1. Dennis E. Smith
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  2. Kevin C. Burns
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Smith, D.E., Burns, K.C. Estimating percentiles from composite environmental samples when all observations are nondetectable. Environmental and Ecological Statistics 5, 227–243 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009621419593

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009621419593

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