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Jan 16, 2020 | Blogs, Environmental / Industrial | 0 comments
Despite a 38-fold increase in environmental laws put in place around the world since 1972, the future of our planet is under the spotlight like never before. Mitigating climate change has arrived as our world’s foremost challenge, and with it comes a myriad of research and efforts around reducing anthropogenic pollution. The aim is to safeguard wildlife and biodiversity, protect our food and water supply from persistent and harmful contaminants, and promote sustainability in the global ecosystem and human communities.
Regulations play a significant role. Not only do they specify legal terms of tolerance concerning the chemicals entering our environment, but they also define the tolerance levels of a chemical or substance. Regulations seek to protect systems and non-target organisms from unintended adverse effects. And with environmental regulation comes environmental analysis. It’s a critical piece when it comes to enforcing environmental laws.
The challenge right now is that the regulations around the world are changing and struggling to keep up with some of the threats. This is particularly the case for the list of emerging contaminants, which is continuously expanding due to agrochemical and industrial developments. Most jurisdictions around the world are reviewing their stance on these chemicals to ensure regulations adequately protect both our environment and the population.
But where does that leave environmental testing labs? Let’s take a look at some of the key trends impacting the regulatory and analytical landscape.
The PFAS crisis hits global proportionsOne of the most high-profile issues is a class of compounds is called per- or poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). They have received significant public and media attention due to their toxicity and extreme persistence, and also because of their documented presence in many natural water systems globally. This has had a direct impact on our aquatic environment, drinking water and agriculture. A few things to consider with regards to the scale of the problem:
Since the EPA launched its PFAS Action Plan, there has been rapid development of regulations. It represents the broadest regulatory changes right now, and at last count, there were at least 10 proposed bills in Congress to address PFAS. They include proposals to formally include PFAS within the statutory definitions of hazardous waste, setting PFAS standards in drinking water (maximum contaminant levels) and including PFAS in the toxic release inventory. However, there has been criticism around delayed action, and more than eight states have enacted their own legislation to address PFAS issues.
Even Hollywood has joined the fight to tackle PFAS with the release of the movie Dark Waters. Looking forward, PFAS are expected to remain prominent in environmental research and analysis. Interestingly, this paper states that mobility, substitution, diversity, and unknown “dark matter” will shape PFAS research in the next decade.
Beyond PFAS and on to other emerging environmental contaminantsOther emerging environmental contaminants that warrant attention include pharmaceuticals, personal care products, illicit drugs, hormones, endocrine disruptors, disinfection by-products and algal toxins. The list goes on. Wastewater effluents are a significant source of these chemicals entering our environment due to their everyday use in our households.
The use of pesticides can also impact soil and surface water quality. Agricultural chemicals have a much broader environmental impact and are the subject of a great deal of controversy around the world. An example is glyphosate. While Vietnam has banned all herbicides containing glyphosate, countries like Germany and France are slowly phasing out the chemical.
Looking ahead to 2020 and beyond, what will happen?What is increasingly evident is that environmental scientists need to address the emerging chemicals entering the environment and react quickly to an uncertain and changing regulatory landscape.
Research laboratories need to investigate the risks these chemicals pose to the surrounding environment and the wider population. They require the most sensitive and modern instrumentation to identify and quantify new chemicals and compounds.
There is hope that the regulators will quickly conclude their reviews and set out clear guidelines. This will enable industrial and contract labs to test environmental samples to ensure restricted compounds are below regulation imposed levels.
Finding certainty among the chaos of changeFaced with constant change, you need to be able to count on an analytical method that can detect contaminant chemicals and identify secondary molecules such as the metabolites.
Recent techniques and methods have been developed for identifying and characterizing new chemicals in environmental samples. There is also a need for analytical methods that can cost-effectively screen for a wide range of suspected and non-targeted compounds in complex environmental matrices within a single analytical run. In the last few years, this has resulted in a shift in the analytical methods used.
Numerous emerging contaminantssuch as PFAS are continuously used and discharged into the environment.1,2,3,4 So, this leaves us with the question— is there an analytical method that can comprehensively detect new and emerging contaminants and their precursors?
Good question! Technological advancements in high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) have improved HRMS performance to identify the currently unknown PFAS using non-targeted analysis.5,6,7 Check out this webinar by Professor Christopher Higgins from the Colorado School of Mines, where he demonstrates how he and his team have used LC-HRMS to detect PFAS.
What if I’m looking at other emerging contaminants?Both HRMS and LC-MS/MS are widely accepted techniques.8, 9 One reason is the ability of these approaches to determine the molecular formulas of the analytes from accurate mass measurements. The techniques also enable you to process data for compounds retrospectively. If you’re curious about what SCIEX instruments can do for your PFAS testing, you can download this eBook to learn more.
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References
It is no secret that (bio)pharmaceutical research and development is complex, both scientific and regulatory processes. Here is an overview of just some of the ways SCIEX is working to support these challenges.
In a recent webinar, available on demand, scientists Luiza Chrojan and Ryan Hylands from Pharmaron, provided insights into the deployment of capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) within cell and gene therapy. Luiza and Ryan shared purity data on plasmids used for adeno-associated virus (AAV) manufacturing and data on AAV genome integrity, viral protein (VP) purity and VP ratios using the BioPhase 8800 system.
Last year, Technology Networks hosted two webinars that featured groundbreaking research utilizing SWATH DIA (data-independent acquisition) for exposomics and metabolomics. Researchers Dr. Vinicius Verri Hernandes from the University of Vienna and Dr. Cristina Balcells from Imperial College London (ICL) demonstrated how a DIA approach can be successfully implemented in small molecule analysis using the ZenoTOF 7600 system. Their innovative approaches highlight the potential of SWATH DIA to enhance the detection and analysis of chemical exposures and metabolites, paving the way for new insights into environmental health and disease mechanisms.
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