Detection and determination limits of priority organic pollutants in soil

At present, the situation regarding data on concentration patterns in soils of areas with background contaminations are insufficient. For soil protection these data are essential for deriving reference values. Therefore the article presents and interprets detection and determination limits for a selection of priority organic pollutants in soils. Based on these results determination limits for the determination of background values for larger areas are proposed. Background values for organic contaminants in not specifically polluted soils and groundwaters may be very low with extreme demands on chemical analysis. In case of sampling from larger areas therefore a compromise has to be found between what is possible with great technical effort and what is requested and desirable for soil and groundwater protection.