Experts from Waters and leading authorities in the field of dioxin analysis met as part of an all-day user meeting in an effort to help keep scientists at the top of their game
The meeting took place on Sunday 21 August 2005 at the Royal Fairmont Hotel in Toronto, in conjunction with Dioxin 2005, the 25th international symposium on halogenated organic pollutants.
Dioxin encompasses a group of chemicals frequently found in the environment.
It is formed as the result of many industrial processes involving chlorine such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching.
According to a 1994 draft version of a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on dioxins, this family of chemicals is a serious threat to public health.
James Willis, director, Waters chemical analysis market development group, and a team of Waters scientists and approximately 100 Waters users discussed the latest advancements in the analysis of dioxins and related compounds.
New features of the AutoSpec Premier, Micromass GCT Premier, and LCT Premier mass spectrometers and accompanying informatics software were discussed.
International speakers such as Stuart Harrad, chair of the Natural Environmental Research Council UK, Persistent Organic Pollutants Network and senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, Bert van Bavel from the MTM Research Centre at Orebro University, Stevie Wilding from the US EPA and Renata Bailey from the University of Regina, Canada, discussed the following topics, among others.
QA/QAC in dioxin analysis.
Practical issues in setting up methods, predominantly food-based, high resolution work.
Developments in analytical methods for PCBs.
Comparison of GC/MS/MS and GC/MS methods for the analysis of organophosphorus pesticides (Oops) in environmental samples.
Waters presented a 20-minute seminar during the general session entitled Multi residue analysis of EU black list priority pollutants in drinking and surface water using solid phase extraction and GC tandem quadrupole MS/MS.
The following posters were also featured.
Evaluation of a novel detection system for a magnetic sector instrument.
Chromatographic separation of branched perfluorooctanesulphonate isomers by UPLC with tandem quadrupole MS/MS detection.
