The freely dissolved concentration (Cfree) of hydrophobic organic chemicals in sediments and soils is considered the driver behind chemical bioavailability and, ultimately, toxic effects in benthic organisms. Therefore, quantifying Cfree, although challenging, is critical when assessing risks of contamination in field and spiked sediments and soils (e.g., when judging remediation necessity or interpreting results of toxicity assays performed for chemical safety assessments). Here, we provide a state-of-the-art passive sampling protocol for determining Cfree in sediment and soil samples. It represents an international consensus procedure, developed during a recent interlaboratory comparison study. The protocol describes the selection and preconditioning of the passive sampling polymer, critical incubation system component dimensions, equilibration and equilibrium condition confirmation, quantitative sampler extraction, quality assurance/control issues and final calculations of Cfree. The full procedure requires several weeks (depending on the sampler used) because of prolonged equilibration times. However, hands-on time, excluding chemical analysis, is approximately 3 d for a set of about 15 replicated samples.

Atlantic Coastal Environmental Science Division Office of Research and Development U S Environmental Protection Agency Narragansett RI USA

Center for Fisheries Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences and Department of Zoology Southern Illinois University Carbondale IL USA

Chemistry Department Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Authority Costa Mesa CA USA

Civil Environmental and Construction Engineering Texas Tech University Lubbock TX USA

Department of Chemical Biochemical and Environmental Engineering University of Maryland Baltimore County Baltimore MD USA

Geotechnics and Environment Norwegian Geotechnical Institute Oslo Norway

Graduate School of Oceanography University of Rhode Island Narragansett RI USA

Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences Utrecht University Utrecht the Netherlands

Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

RM Parsons Laboratory Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA USA

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