White HDPE bottles as source of serious contamination of water samples with Ba and Zn

During a recent study of surface water quality factory new white high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles were used for collecting the water samples. According to the established field protocol of the Geological Survey of Norway the bottles were twice carefully rinsed with water in the field prior to sampling. Several blank samples using milli-Q (ELGA) water (> 18.2 MΩ) were also prepared. On checking the analytical results the blanks returned values of Ag, Ba, Sr, V, Zn and Zr. For Ba and Zn the values (c. 300 μg/l and 95 μg/l) were about 10 times above the concentrations that can be expected in natural waters. A laboratory test of the bottles demonstrated that the bottles contaminate the samples with significant amounts of Ba and Zn and some Sr. Simple acid washing of the bottles prior to use did not solve the contamination problem for Ba and Zn. The results suggest that there may exist “clean” and “dirty” HDPE bottles depending on manufacturer/production process. When collecting water samples it is mandatory to check bottles regularly as a possible source of contamination.