Chapter 11. FIELDWORK: SITE INSPECTION AND SAMPLING

International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 2007

The UK Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) provides research and analytical support to the Health and Safety Executive, other Government Departments and employers. In the area of biomonitoring HSL conducts research studies and provides an analytical service for regular surveillance of worker exposure to hazardous substances. This paper gives brief examples of how data from such studies can be used to develop biological monitoring guidance values for isocyanates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and hexavalent chromium. In addition, a study of occupational exposure to copper chrome arsenic wood preservatives is briefly described to show how biological monitoring can be used for post-approval surveillance of a biocide.

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2014

Cyanobacteria blooms are since early times a cause for environmental concern because of their negative impact through the release of odors, water discoloration, and more dangerously through the release of toxic compounds (i.e. the cyanotoxins) that can affect both human and animal welfare. Surveillance of the aquatic ecosystems is therefore obligatory, and methods to achieve such require a prompt answer not only regarding the species that are producing the blooms but also the cyanotoxins that are being produced and/or released. Moreover, besides this well-known source of possible intoxication, it has been demonstrated the existence of several other potential routes of exposure, either for humans or other biota such as through food additives and in terrestrial environments (in plants, lichens, biological soil crusts) and the recognition of their harmful impact on less studied ecosystems (e.g. coral reefs). Nowadays, the most frequent approaches to detect toxic cyanobacteria and/or their toxins are the chemical-, biochemical-, and molecular-based methods. Above their particular characteristics and possible applications, they all bring to the environmental monitoring several aspects that are needed to be discussed and scrutinized. The end outcome of this review will be to provide newer insights and recommendations regarding the methods needed to apply in an environmental risk assessment program. Therefore, a current state of the knowledge concerning the three methodological approaches will be presented, while highlighting positive and negative aspects of each of those methods within the purpose of monitoring or studying cyanobacteria and their toxins in the environment.

AAS Open Research, 2018

This report is an overview of requests for biological and environmental monitoring of hazardous chemicals, submitted to the National Institute for Occupational Health, Analytical Services Laboratory for testing from the years 2005 to 2015. The report discusses the nature of tests requested and implications for workers' health and environment, as well as potential impact of the uncertainties associated with monitoring of hazardous chemicals. This is a retrospective, descriptive, qualitative and quantitative audit of all samples received and tests performed retrieved from records of analysis by the laboratory. The study sample consisted of 44,221 samples. The report indicates that throughout the interrogation period the demand for biological monitoring was higher than that for environmental monitoring, with more requests for toxic metals than organic pollutants. Toxic metal testing was highest for mercury, followed by manganese, lead, aluminium and arsenic. The highest number of tests for organic pollutants was conducted for pesticides followed by toluene and xylene. The study has also revealed that the scope of tests requested is rather narrow and does not reflect the broad spectrum of Having identified possible reasons for South Africa's industrial diversity. underutilization, a number of reforms that could enhance the laboratory's performance have been addressed.

Toxicon, 2010

A system of analytical processes has been developed in order to serve as a cost-effective scheme for the monitoring of cyanobacterial toxins on a quantitative basis, in surface and drinking waters. Five cyclic peptide hepatotoxins, microcystin-LR,-RR,-YR,-LA and nodularin were chosen as the target compounds. Two different enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were validated in order to serve as primary quantitative screening tools. Validation results showed that the ELISA methods are sufficiently specific and sensitive with limits of detection (LODs) around 0.1 mg/L, however, matrix effects should be considered, especially with surface water samples or bacterial mass methanolic extracts. A colorimetric protein phosphatase inhibition assay (PPIA) utilizing protein phosphatase 2A and p-nitrophenyl phosphate as substrate, was applied in microplate format in order to serve as a quantitative screening method for the detection of the toxic activity associated with cyclic peptide hepatotoxins, at concentration levels >0.2 mg/L of MC-LR equivalents. A fast HPLC/PDA method has been developed for the determination of microcystins, by using a short, 50 mm C18 column, with 1.8 mm particle size. Using this method a 10-fold reduction of sample run time was achieved and sufficient separation of microcystins was accomplished in less than 3 min. Finally, the analytical system includes an LC/MS/MS method that was developed for the determination of the 5 target compounds after SPE extraction. The method achieves extremely low limits of detection (<0.02 mg/L), in both surface and drinking waters and it is used for identification and verification purposes as well as for determinations at the ppt level. An analytical protocol that includes the above methods has been designed and validated through the analysis of a number of real samples.

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2020

Worldwide, water resources for drinking water supply are severely impacted by multiple anthropogenic pressures. Cyanobacteria blooms can generate serious health risks. Current methods for determining toxic species are based on microscope identification. These require specialized skills and are time-consuming. Thus, easy to implement methods must be developed such as those based on fluorescence probes of chlorophyll and cyanobacteria-specific pigments. Collected data are very variable depending on the hardware characteristics and may be affected by large errors. In order to investigate their reliability, a field survey has been performed for 2 years, in a small experimental lake (Great Paris, France). This included high-frequency measurements of both Chl-a and phycocyanin fluorescence. Lab analysis and Fluorescent Excitation-Emission Matrices (F-EEM) were also realised. The dataset was analysed in order to define sensor reliability conditions for assessing the cyanobacteria biomass.

Handbook of Cyanobacterial Monitoring and Cyanotoxin Analysis, 2017