DETERMINATION OF BROMATE IN BOTTLED DRINKING WATER FROM SAUDI ARABIAN MARKETS BY HPLC/ICP-MS

The determination of bromate (BrO(3)(-)) in 50 different bottled drinking water samples collected from Saudi Arabian markets has been investigated using liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS). For analysis, samples were injected directly without any further pretreatment or dilution, using only a 50 mu L injection volume. The method showed: detection limit of 0.5 mu g/L, limit of quantification of 1.0 mu g/L, 1.0 - 200.0 mu g/L linearity range (r(2) = 0.9998), relative standard deviation (%RSD) for reproducibility (inter-day precision) values of 14% and 4% for low and high concentration levels (10,100 mu g/L), respectively. The results obtained for bromate showed that 30% of the samples are acceptable as US EPA standards (10 mu g/L), 40% of the samples are acceptable as Gulf (Saudi Arabia) standards (25 mu g/L), and almost 60% of the samples exceed the allowable limits for bromate in bottled drinking water.