- Email: [email protected]
Persistent organic pollutants
Editorial
Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 46, 2013
Editorial Persistent organic pollutants Jacob de Boer, Heidelore Fiedler The first persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were detected in the environment in the 1960s. DDT, used as an insecticide during World War II, saved thousands of people from death by malaria. However, together with other chlorinated pesticides, such as dieldrin, it was found to be present in bird eggs, fish, sediment and human milk. Not much later, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), used in a variety of industrial applications, were also detected in the same environmental matrices as well as in humans. In her book, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson signaled the destructive nature of these halogenated compounds to wildlife and humans. Authorities and scientists collectively started to develop monitoring programs, and, in the 1980s, the production and the use of most of these POPs were banned. Meanwhile, the family of POPs had grown as the Seveso incident in Italy had made the world aware of the existence of an extremely toxic, unintentionally generated POP, namely 2,3,7,8tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin, which subsequently led to a whole family of dioxin-like POPs, including additional polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and specific PCBs. In the period between the 1960s and the 1990s, analytical chemists continually developed and improved the analysis of chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs. Using first packed and later capillary columns, gas chromatography (GC) was the method of choice to Jacob de Boer Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1087, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Heidelore Fiedler UNEP/DTIE Chemicals Branch, Chemin des Ane´mones 11-13, CH-1219 Chaˆtelaine (GE), Switzerland E-mail: [email protected]
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separate these semi-volatile compounds. Due to its high sensitivity for halogens, the electron-capture detection (ECD) was used initially, but was gradually replaced by low-resolution and high-resolution mass spectrometric detectors, which are still becoming better and better in sensitivity and selectivity. Today, after great achievements have been made with respect to selectivity and sensitivity, emphasis is towards speed and economics, with high throughputs and small sample volumes. With so many good methods and so much literature on POPs analysis available and a global treaty like the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in place, is there a reason for a Special Issue of TrAC on POPs analysis? The answer is ‘‘Yes’’, because the entire development described above has been restricted to Western Europe, North America and Japan. Although information is increasingly available from China, very little information on POPs analysis can be found in the literature from other parts of the World. Also, participation in interlaboratory assessments was almost exclusively limited to laboratories from developed countries. The Stockholm Convention is an international environmental treaty, signed in 2001 and coming into force in May 2004, which aims to eliminate or to restrict the production and the use of POPs. It was initiated in 1995, when the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) called for global action to be taken on POPs, which it defined as ‘‘chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment’’. Indeed, POPs will stay in the environment for at least another 100 years and probably much longer. A number of generations will all have to live with the presence of these compounds in food and the environment. One of the activities in the Stockholm Convention is the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP). In the GMP, countries monitor the presence of POPs in their geographic regions. In order to do that properly, capacity building and harmonization of approaches are needed. UNEP initiated a
0165-9936/$ - see front matter ª 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2013.03.001
70
Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 46, 2013
capacity-building program, the first results of which are presented in this Special Issue. Compared to developments that took place much earlier in the western world, part of these capacitybuilding projects involved a step back in time. Interlaboratory assessments identified well-known analytical difficulties that had already been seen in western countries in the 1980s. However, there are also clear differences, related to different cultures and local conditions. The capacity-building projects consisted of workshops, on-site training in laboratories on all continents, training in expert laboratories, interlaboratory assessments, training in air monitoring and a so-called ‘‘mirror’’ project, in which the same samples were analyzed in the local laboratory in a developing country and in an expert laboratory in a developed country. On-site training revealed a substantial number of difficulties in training staff. Some of the problems had a clear analytical character (e.g., use of packed instead of capillary GC columns, use of nitrogen instead of helium or hydrogen as a carrier gas, lack of internal standards and certified reference materials, and a general absence of quality-assurance schemes). Through donations from bilateral donors and international organizations more sophisticated instrumentation (gas chromatographs and mass spectrometers) was often made available. However, the mass spectrometers often did not function due to lack of knowledge and lack of maintenance and service. Even more striking was the lack of good-quality consumables. Although consumables are much cheaper than a mass spectrometer, there was often no suitable glassware,
Editorial
proper syringes, spare columns, stands, or heating plates). Interestingly, this was true for Africa, Latin America and the Pacific. Also safety – proper fume hoods and storage of chemical waste – was an issue in these countries. Very often, a major problem was the bureaucracy within the institutions. Simple orders for gas bottles sometimes took up to six months for delivery. Obviously, the routine that is so necessary in a POP laboratory can never be built up in these circumstances. Having received training, some analysts made use of their ‘‘added value’’ and left for another job. This Special Issue takes you on a tour around the world and tells the story of the difficulties encountered in improving POPs analysis in developing countries. Less visible is the attitude of the trainees – almost without exception their motivation and their efforts to learn the complicated techniques were heartwarming. Much more investment in quality is needed before all countries are at a comparable, satisfactory level in POPs analysis. An additional difficulty is that new POPs were recently added to the initial list of chlorinated POPs. Nowadays, some brominated flame retardants and perfluorinated alkyl substances also need to be analyzed. Further, the matrices selected by UNEP pose additional difficulties – air, human milk and blood are not very easy to analyze – not even for more experienced laboratories. We hope that the experiences with this capacitybuilding program may also be useful for other quality programs that focus on the development of analytical chemistry in developing countries.
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/trac
71
Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 46, 2013
Editorial Persistent organic pollutants Jacob de Boer, Heidelore Fiedler The first persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were detected in the environment in the 1960s. DDT, used as an insecticide during World War II, saved thousands of people from death by malaria. However, together with other chlorinated pesticides, such as dieldrin, it was found to be present in bird eggs, fish, sediment and human milk. Not much later, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), used in a variety of industrial applications, were also detected in the same environmental matrices as well as in humans. In her book, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson signaled the destructive nature of these halogenated compounds to wildlife and humans. Authorities and scientists collectively started to develop monitoring programs, and, in the 1980s, the production and the use of most of these POPs were banned. Meanwhile, the family of POPs had grown as the Seveso incident in Italy had made the world aware of the existence of an extremely toxic, unintentionally generated POP, namely 2,3,7,8tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin, which subsequently led to a whole family of dioxin-like POPs, including additional polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and specific PCBs. In the period between the 1960s and the 1990s, analytical chemists continually developed and improved the analysis of chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs. Using first packed and later capillary columns, gas chromatography (GC) was the method of choice to Jacob de Boer Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1087, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Heidelore Fiedler UNEP/DTIE Chemicals Branch, Chemin des Ane´mones 11-13, CH-1219 Chaˆtelaine (GE), Switzerland E-mail: [email protected]
70
separate these semi-volatile compounds. Due to its high sensitivity for halogens, the electron-capture detection (ECD) was used initially, but was gradually replaced by low-resolution and high-resolution mass spectrometric detectors, which are still becoming better and better in sensitivity and selectivity. Today, after great achievements have been made with respect to selectivity and sensitivity, emphasis is towards speed and economics, with high throughputs and small sample volumes. With so many good methods and so much literature on POPs analysis available and a global treaty like the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in place, is there a reason for a Special Issue of TrAC on POPs analysis? The answer is ‘‘Yes’’, because the entire development described above has been restricted to Western Europe, North America and Japan. Although information is increasingly available from China, very little information on POPs analysis can be found in the literature from other parts of the World. Also, participation in interlaboratory assessments was almost exclusively limited to laboratories from developed countries. The Stockholm Convention is an international environmental treaty, signed in 2001 and coming into force in May 2004, which aims to eliminate or to restrict the production and the use of POPs. It was initiated in 1995, when the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) called for global action to be taken on POPs, which it defined as ‘‘chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment’’. Indeed, POPs will stay in the environment for at least another 100 years and probably much longer. A number of generations will all have to live with the presence of these compounds in food and the environment. One of the activities in the Stockholm Convention is the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP). In the GMP, countries monitor the presence of POPs in their geographic regions. In order to do that properly, capacity building and harmonization of approaches are needed. UNEP initiated a
0165-9936/$ - see front matter ª 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2013.03.001
70
Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 46, 2013
capacity-building program, the first results of which are presented in this Special Issue. Compared to developments that took place much earlier in the western world, part of these capacitybuilding projects involved a step back in time. Interlaboratory assessments identified well-known analytical difficulties that had already been seen in western countries in the 1980s. However, there are also clear differences, related to different cultures and local conditions. The capacity-building projects consisted of workshops, on-site training in laboratories on all continents, training in expert laboratories, interlaboratory assessments, training in air monitoring and a so-called ‘‘mirror’’ project, in which the same samples were analyzed in the local laboratory in a developing country and in an expert laboratory in a developed country. On-site training revealed a substantial number of difficulties in training staff. Some of the problems had a clear analytical character (e.g., use of packed instead of capillary GC columns, use of nitrogen instead of helium or hydrogen as a carrier gas, lack of internal standards and certified reference materials, and a general absence of quality-assurance schemes). Through donations from bilateral donors and international organizations more sophisticated instrumentation (gas chromatographs and mass spectrometers) was often made available. However, the mass spectrometers often did not function due to lack of knowledge and lack of maintenance and service. Even more striking was the lack of good-quality consumables. Although consumables are much cheaper than a mass spectrometer, there was often no suitable glassware,
Editorial
proper syringes, spare columns, stands, or heating plates). Interestingly, this was true for Africa, Latin America and the Pacific. Also safety – proper fume hoods and storage of chemical waste – was an issue in these countries. Very often, a major problem was the bureaucracy within the institutions. Simple orders for gas bottles sometimes took up to six months for delivery. Obviously, the routine that is so necessary in a POP laboratory can never be built up in these circumstances. Having received training, some analysts made use of their ‘‘added value’’ and left for another job. This Special Issue takes you on a tour around the world and tells the story of the difficulties encountered in improving POPs analysis in developing countries. Less visible is the attitude of the trainees – almost without exception their motivation and their efforts to learn the complicated techniques were heartwarming. Much more investment in quality is needed before all countries are at a comparable, satisfactory level in POPs analysis. An additional difficulty is that new POPs were recently added to the initial list of chlorinated POPs. Nowadays, some brominated flame retardants and perfluorinated alkyl substances also need to be analyzed. Further, the matrices selected by UNEP pose additional difficulties – air, human milk and blood are not very easy to analyze – not even for more experienced laboratories. We hope that the experiences with this capacitybuilding program may also be useful for other quality programs that focus on the development of analytical chemistry in developing countries.
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/trac
71