ABSTRACT
Contaminants play an important role in the aquatic environment if they interfere with the ecosystem and endanger aquatic resources, such as drinking water. Several sources such as industry, urban wastewater plants, and agriculture contribute to the pollution of water bodies with a broad range of toxic substances. Immunoassays offer distinct advantages for the detection of pollutants in the aquatic environment. Immunochemical analysis is based upon the specific reaction between an antibody and its corresponding antigen or hapten. The strong cross-reactivity of an alachlor antibody to the sulfonic acid metabolite produced frequently false positive values using an alachlor screening kit. Natural water samples can contain compounds in addition to the target analyte that may interfere with the test. Compounds of environmental concern occur not only as free residues in the aquatic environment, but they can also bind to mostly low-molecular-weight, water-soluble humic substances. Important applications are seen in the analytics of ground and drinking water, where matrix effects are seldom observed.
