Overview
EN ISO 5667-23:2011 - Water quality: Guidance on passive sampling in surface waters provides standardized guidance for using passive samplers to determine time‑weighted average (TWA) and equilibrium concentrations of the free dissolved fraction of organic, organometallic and inorganic substances (including metals) in surface waters. The standard covers the full chain from device selection, handling and deployment to extraction, laboratory analysis and reporting.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Scope and principle
- Defines passive sampling concepts: integrative (kinetic) and equilibrium sampling modes.
- Emphasizes that uptake is driven by the free dissolved concentration, not particulate‑bound fractions.
- Sampler behaviour
- Discusses transport control: membrane control vs water boundary layer control, and how flow/turbulence affects sampling rates.
- Notes that some metal samplers measure free plus small molecular‑mass bound fractions that can diffuse through the permeation layer.
- Preparation and handling
- Requirements for sampler preparation, assembly and storage prior to field deployment.
- Deployment and retrieval
- Guidance on site selection, safety precautions, deployment procedures, transport and retrieval to ensure representative TWA or equilibrium data.
- Calibration and deployment timing
- Methods to estimate appropriate field deployment time (days to weeks) and approaches for sampler calibration (see Annex A summaries).
- Extraction, analysis and calculations
- Procedures for extraction of analytes from devices and subsequent laboratory analysis, with calculation methods to convert sampler uptake to environmental concentrations.
- Quality assurance
- Replicate devices, field and lab controls, and QA measures (Annex C) to ensure data quality.
- Documentation
- Required contents for the test report and supporting documentation.
Practical applications and users
- Useful for environmental monitoring programmes, regulatory compliance, pollutant trend monitoring and research where episodic fluctuations make grab sampling insufficient.
- Typical analytes: polar and non‑polar organic pollutants (pesticides, pharmaceuticals, PAHs, PCBs), metals and inorganic ions.
- Primary users:
- Environmental laboratories and water analysis teams
- Regulatory agencies and water authorities
- Environmental consultants and contractors
- Academic and research groups conducting aquatic monitoring
- Industry monitoring teams required to demonstrate environmental performance
Related standards
- EN ISO 5667 series (water quality - sampling): Parts 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, etc., which cover sampling design, preservation, sampling of rivers, lakes, marine waters, groundwater and quality assurance.
Keywords: EN ISO 5667-23:2011, passive sampling, surface waters, time-weighted average, equilibrium concentrations, free dissolved fraction, water quality, passive samplers, environmental monitoring.
