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laboratory data management system based on Digital Equipment hard- ware. Hewlett-Packard offers the pow- erful system 3357, based on their HP-1000 minicomputer. The system still has the loop concept, but Hewlett-Packard also offers other possibilities. LKB and the local firms Betron and Bester showed chromato- graphy data systems based on the Apple II personal computer. Dave Nelson, formerly of Hewlett-Packard

and now representing his own com- pany Nelson Analytical, was very busy demonstrating his data system based on a Hewlett-Packard 16-bit 9816 computer, in the booth of his local representative CL1 from Schijndel in the Netherlands. Maple Instruments from Susteren in the southern part of the country, showed their new low cost thermal analysis system, TSC 42D, coupled with a Victor personal compu- ter.

In general, the picture of the Dutch ‘HET’ exhibition is one of a rapid progress of computers and computing methods in the field of analytical chemistry; a development so fast that, in particular, the software demand is becoming a critical factor for the realization of obvious possibilities.

KLAUS H. P. BROER

Dr Klaus H. P. Brocr ‘s address is Planetenbaan 146, 3721 6 Gilthoven, Th Netherlands.

Chemistry of pollutants - recent developments

A report of the 13th Annual Sym- posium on the Analytical Chemistry of Pollutants held in Jekyll Island, GA, USA, 18-l 8 May 1983.

The International Association of Environmental Analytical Chemistry and the Members of the American Coordinating Committee organized this international meeting of experts to help solve environmental problems associated with the manufacture, use and disposal of chemicals. Plenary lecturers explored broad environmen- tal problems whose solutions depend on analytical chemistry, invited lectur- ers and poster presentations gave news of the latest developments. The highlights were discussions on risk assessment, on investigations of water and air pollution, and new instrumen- tal approaches - for instance in multi-element analysis and liquid chromatography.

Joseph V. Rodricks (Washington, DC) explained that the duration of exposure, absorption, probability of injury and other assumptions have to be discussed in exposure assessment. Risk assessment does not consider the question of acceptability and small risks may be difficult to detect. In the case of aflatoxins and their metabolites it was estimated that the human intake in the USA is 8 ng day-l on average. W. B. Neely (Midland MI) applied the use of models to the calculation of risks from environmental concentra- tion estimates. Bioassays would prob- ably be more useful, but they are more difficult to design and analyse.

William L. Budde (Cincinnati, OH)

0165+936/84/$02.00.

discussed the analytical chemistry of the Love Canal study. This was a continuation of the work presented by D. Craig Shew (Ada, OK) at the 11 th Annual Symposium. After it was recognized that buried toxic chemicals were leaching into adjacent residential areas and a state of emergency had been declared, the extent of the contamination had to be determined and its longer term impact on ground water and the habitability of the area had to be assessed. It was known that the population in the central area was exposed to toxins. The question was, what happened in the designated area outside the first two lines of houses, and had the leak been stopped? In the Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) environmental monitoring study, over 20 laboratories analysed more than 6 000 samples (from soil, water, air plants and animals), and compared collected- and control-sam- ples. The final report is now available to the public and shows that there is no consistent pattern of contamination, and that contamination is confined to sediments in creeks and to storm sewer flows.

The following conclusions could be drawn for the analytical chemist: the ultimate data user must be known before such an ambiguous study is started. Different extraction techni- ques (inert gas purge of volatile compounds, liquid-liquid partition) give different results. It was also learnt that instrument calibration is very important, fluorobenzene and p-bromofluorobenzene were shown to be suitable labelling substances as they did not occur naturally and could be

added to samples. Deviation between results from different laboratories of c 30% are nevertheless possible. It is thus important to evaluate not only the results but also the performance of the various laboratories in similar studies.

Joan Albaiges (Barcelona) pre- sented an overview of the environmen- tal pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. The northwest coast, with its popula- tion and industry, is most polluted. Since 1975 the MEDPOL Program, under the auspices of UNEP, and later Spanish and French programs has examined pollutant transfer from the land to the sea.

Russel F. Christman (Chapel Hill, NC) studied reaction products of humics with selected oxidants (KMnO4, HOC& ClOz, OS and chloromines). Fulvic and humic acid fractions were isolated from two southeastern USA surface waters using a combination ofXAD-8 adsorp- tion, acid precipitation, salt removal and freeze drying. One or both fractions were exposed to oxidants at various ratios, and the products were identified. 7080% of the degradation products isolated were methyl esters of tri- and tetra-carboxylic derivatives of polyalkyl benzenes, and aliphatic dibasic acid methyl esters. The reac- tion products were identified by GC-MS after solvent extraction.

Analytical and environmental chemistry of the atmosphere

Wolfgang Jaeschke (Frankfurt am Main) discussed the analytical

‘methodology of heterogeneous atmos- pheric chemistry for distinguishing between the gaseous, liquid and solid states in the reactions of gas to particle conversion (interactions with conden- sation processes). Appropriate calibra-

@ 1984 Elscvkr Scicncc Publishers B.V.

XIV hena? in analytical hemis@, vol. 3, m-3, 1984

tion sources were developed for trace gas, droplets, and aerosol particles (including samples and analyses). With a simple device developed at the University of Albany, cloud water samples may be collected and analysed for H202 and radicals.

Dieter Klockow (Dortmund) applied diffusion processing of atmos- pheric aerosols to speciation of air- borne reactive trace compounds. This new sampling method has unique advantages; firstly, artifacts which have frequently been observed during filter sampling can easily be avoided. Secondly, gaseous and particulate forms of certain elements and com- pounds can be selectively collected by diffusion controlled deposition. Thirdly, diffusion processing makes possible sizing in the sub-optical particle size fraction.

R. Bruce Chase (Wilmington DE) discussed micro-analysis of particu- lates using IR and Raman techniques. Chase uses diffuse reflectance tech- niques (including pinhole transmis- sion and diamond cells) with a Fourier transform spectrometer to obtain IR spectra and nanogram quantities of material deposited on potassium bromide for LC extracts. Addition of rhodamine facilitates the recognition of irregularities.

In a very lively talk Thomas B. Malloy, Jr. (Houston TX) discussed the use of vibrational spectroscopy for detecting and/or identifiring small amounts of material, or material present in low concentrations. A tunable IR laser spectrometer equip- ped with a multiple reflectance cell providing path lengths up to-0 m provides sensitive and selective deter- mination of certain trace impurities in gases in the p.p.b. range, for instance CO in ethylene or propylene, CO, CO2 and OCS in nitrogen, or CO2, CO and CH4 in helium. Before purification, nitrogen may, for instance, contain 700 p.p.b. CO and more than 500 p.p.b. co2.

Developments in instrumentation Thomas C. O’Haver (College Park,

MD) argued whether simultaneous multi-element atomic absorption is feasible and John M. Ottaway (Glas- gow) applied electrothermal atomic emission spectrometry (AES) to

environmental analysis. He used the valuable characteristics of the carbon or graphite furnace (as compared with arcs, sparks and inductively coupled plasma), which allows atomization at relatively low temperatures under conditions of local equilibrium. Back- ground radiation is easily removed by wavelength modulation background correction, to give low detection limits; further improvements are possible with a new platform technique. The newest development is a direct auto- matic monitor for metals in atmos- pheric particulates, in which instru- ment samples are directly injected into the graphite tube and automatic measurement is possible.

Michael L. Gross (Lincoln, NE) analysed polar materials by desorption ionization combined with MS-MS and FTLMS. Gross applied these new techniques to surfactants, polar lipids, peptides, nucleosides, nucleotides and nucleotide/DNA adducts, as well as carboxylates. MS-MS overcomes the limitations of FAB, the high chemical noise due to the matrix and the dearth of fragmentation of FAB desorbed ions. FT-MS (Fourier transform mass spectrometry) is preferably combined with laser desorption, and has the unique features of Fellgett advantage and extremely high mass resolution under the appropriate experimental conditions.

Developments in chromatography J. F. K. Huber (Vienna) discussed

integrated enrichment and multi- dimensional separation by liquid chromatography (LC). The combina- tion of increases of sample concentra- tion in the mobile phase by factors up to 10 000 (according to the change of the capacity factor) and of high performance separation is a powerful tool in the trace analysis of complex materials. Huber discussed the separa- tion and identification of carbamide pesticides, compounds which are often separated with difficulty.

Lionel A. Carreira (Athens, GA) explained the optical principles of non-linear spectroscopy for on-line LC analysis. Originally, Carreira worked with a scanning UV-visible spec- trophotometer as the initial fured wave-length detector in a computer- controlled LC system that also used a

coherent anti-Stokes Raman (CARS) as a means of identification for each solute. By using a Vidicon-based detection system instead, and by adding capabilities for fluorescence and fluorescence*xcitation spectra, it was possible to increase the number of types of spectra and the spread at which they were obtained. Carreira separated complex rug dyes and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, such as anthracene, perylene, benzo(e)pyrene, benzo(GHI)perylene and coronene, using this method. ’

Ronald A. Hites (Bloomington, IA) discussed new possibilities for the environmental analysis of mixtures containing several halogen compounds with negative chemical ionization GC-MS instead of electron capture detectors (ECD, which do provide sufficient information for identitlca- tion). Hites studied dioxin contents in carp and sediments of the Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron). Limits of detection were 20 pg for 1,2,3, 4-TCDD (calibra- tion chemicals) and 0.2 pg for OCDD. TCDD should be determined at lOO-2OO”C, HCDD and OCDD at 200-250°C. Hites also studied the octachlorostyrene content of Lake Ontario sediments, as well as fluori- nated compounds in this Lake. These compounds originated from Hooker Chemicals via dumpsites in Niagara Falls. NC1 (negative chemical ioniza- tion) GC-MS is thus very helpful in the measurement of compounds of known structure with relatively high halogen content.

The 14th Annual Symposium on the Analytical Chemistry of Pollutants will be held in Barcelona (Spain) on 21-23 November 1984.

ERNEST MERIAN

Dr Merian ir Secretary of th Intemational Association of Enviromnentul Analytical Chnnis- try. His address is Im Kirsgartcn 22, CH-4106, Therwil, Switzerland.

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