FW: Laboratory method for NMP 

Gary Wood to: Christopher Lambesis 

Cc: "Jeff Glaser" 

06/04/2010 03:35 PM 

From: 

To: 

Cc: 

History: 

"Gary Wood" <woodgl@trimatrixlabs.com> 

Christopher Lambesis/R5/USEPA/US@EPA 

"Jeff Glaser" <glaserj@trimatrixlabs.com > 

Please respond to <woodgl©trimatrixlabs .com> 

This message has been replied to. 

Hi Chris, 

I pulled the email Terri Zick had sent me regarding how we were going to 

proceed with this program. Below her message is yours saying to include a 

raw product sample for the purposes of identification. At that point, at 

least, we hadn't discussed using it for a 1pt calibration. 

Our Lab Manager has reviewed the data and sent me a response to your concern 

about our IS's failing and/or our analytical system not being in control. 

I've copied the text of his message into this email. It is as follows: 

Gary - I took a look at the data for this and there were some issues with 

the samples, but nothing was wrong with the instrument. Several of the 

samples had internal standards recoveries that were outside of the method 

acceptance windows, however, the analyte we were looking for, 

N-methylpyrrolidone, is associated with the internal standard 

1,4-dichloorobenzene-d4, which was in control in all of the samples. All of 

the samples also had out of control acid surrogate recoveries, and one had a 

base-neutral surrogate that was out of control (1003151-05). The analyte of 

interest is not an acid compound, so the only sample that might be 

considered as suspect would be 1003151-05. However, from reviewing the 

chromatograms, the reason for the low recoveries was matrix interference 

from high concentrations of other "non-target" analytes. We could have gone 

and diluted the sample and reanalyzed them, but all that would have done was 

elevate the reporting limits and all samples would have been non-detect; 

there wouldn't have been any useful data at all in that case. I think that 

we need to keep in mind that we are talking about estimated concentrations 

for these anyway, so the surrogate recoveries and non-associated internals 

really lose their relevance. Please let me know if you have any other 

questions. 

Jeff P. Glaser 

Vice President, Laboratory Operations 

As always Chris, let me know if you have questions orwoodgl@trimatrixlabs 

can do to help. 

Thank you, 

Gary Wood 

Senior Project Chemist 
Corporate / Laboratory 

616.975.4500 

5560 Corporate Exchange Court SE 

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512 

woodgl@trimatrixlabs.com 

Main: 

Direct: 616.940.4206 

Fax: 616.942.7463 

www.trimatrixlabs.com 

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Original Message 

From: Terri Zick [mailto:tzick@cticompanies.com] 

Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 11:53 AM 

To: woodgl@trimatrixlabs.com ; glaserj@trimatrixlabs.com ; 

roudbushw@trimatrixlabs.com 

Cc: Mike Movinski 

Subject: FW: Laboratory method for NMP 

GentlemenThe EPA folks have indicated that they will accept results from samples run 

for NMP as a TIC. They are also looking to have us run a diluted sample of 

the raw product as a comparison (see e-mail below). I look to your expertise 

to clarify for me what we need to consider to obtain defensible data from 

this effort and to put a price-tag on the effort. We will need to collect 

the samples before 3/11/10, so I would like to make sure we have bottles in 

the next couple of days and have a general idea of approach and cost. I do 

not want to blind-side my client with costs that they do not expect. 

Thank you for your technical expertise and help!!! 

Terri Zick 

313-300-7401 cell 

tzick@cticompanies.com 

CTI and Associates, Inc. 

51331 W. Pontiac Trail, Wixom, MI 48393 

248.486.5100 Phone I 248.486.5050 Fax 

Original Message 

From: Lambesis.Christopher@epamail.epa.gov 

[mailto:Lambesis.Christopher@epamail.epa.gov] 

Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 11:09 AM 

To: Terri Zick 

Cc: Kathy Wilson; Ramaly.Todd@epamail.epa.gov 

Subject: Re: Laboratory method for NMP 
Terri, 

We agree to your proposed sampling and analysis methods for NMP as suggested 

below. I also suggest you separately send for analysis a sample of the raw 

NMP product (about 10m1 in a VOA vial). It is important that the laboratory 

is notified that this sample is pure product and should be diluted 

accordingly. Analysis of the diluted NMP product should help identify 

chromatographic retention time and possible breakdown constituents without 

derivatization. 

Christopher Lambesis 

Environmental Scientist 

U.S EPA Region 5 

Land and Chemicals Division 

(312) 886-3583 

From: Terri Zick <tzick@cticompanies.com> 

To: Todd Ramaly/R5/USEPA/US@EPA, Christopher 

Lambesis/R5/USEPA/US@EPA 

Cc: Kathy Wilson <kathywilson@owossographic.com> 

Date: 03/02/2010 12:35 PM 

Subject: Laboratory method for NMP 

We have confirmed with Trimatrix Laboratories that Method 8270 will be the 

appropriate method under which to look for NMP as a TIC (Please see the 

pertinent excerpt from their e-mail response below) 

We propose collecting 3 composite samples from the roll-off box which is 

currently full & scheduled for shipment on March 11, 2010. The filter cake 

in the box represents 6 press cleanings within the past 75 days. 

We propose collecting a series of 3 samples, each composited from 2 

locations within the container. Two samples would be collected from the 

north third, 2 from the central portion of the box and 2 from the south end 

of the box. Each set of 2 samples would be composited to constitute a 

single sample and analyzed using method 8270 without a method 1311 

extraction. The chromatograms from the analysis will be used to identify 

NMP, if present, as a TIC. 

While TIC's are, by definition, not validated results in the same way that a 

sample is validated against a standard, the method blank, surrogate and 

internal standard recovery, and the DFTPP tune summary will demonstrate that 

the sample was run on an analytical system that was in control and valid for 

the method by which the sample was analyzed. If the laboratory detects hits 

of this compound in these samples, the raw data will include the library 

search report along with the supporting data we used to make the tentative 

identification so a 3 rd party reviewer could confirm those results using 

information from the data package. 

Based on production, Owosso Graphic Arts is shipping every 90 or fewer days 
so the window of opportunity for sample collection is small. We would like 

to come to concurrence on the number of samples that you would deem 

acceptable and confirmation that you find the analytical approach using 

method 8270 appropriate for your purposes. 

Thank you in advance for your review & response. 

Terri Zick 

313-300-7401 

Hi Terri, 

I had our Lab Manager review this. Method 8270 would be our best bet. 

We have no standard for it, so it would have to be done as a TIC. 

Gary Wood 

Senior Project Chemist 

(Embedded image moved to file: pic00225.jpg) 

cid:image001.jpg@O1CAB9E3.E93BB700 

Corporate Laboratory Main: 

616.975.4500 

5560 Corporate Exchange Court SE Direct: 616.940.4206 

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512 Fax: 

616.942.7463 

woodgl@trimatrixlabs.com www.trimatrixlabs.com 

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