Teledyne Leeman Labs Blog

Heavy Metal Exposure From Tattoo Ink

Posted by Jeff Forsberg on Feb 9, 2023 2:53:28 PM

What’s my exposure risk to heavy metals such as lead, antimony, beryllium, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury?

Read More

Tags: Heavy Metal Analysis

Trace Elemental Analysis by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Posted by Sara Kennedy on Jan 23, 2023 4:17:03 PM

Trace elemental analysis

Teledyne Leeman Labs has specialized in trace elemental analysis for over 40 years. With initial success in Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), also referred to as Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), Teledyne Leeman Labs went on to develop innovative product lines. Those included branching out into various elemental analysis techniques, including DC Arc and Mercury Analysis. Our elemental analysis instruments can be found in laboratories across the world, providing service to a range of industries. From agriculture to aerospace and food to forensics, Teledyne Leeman Labs is dedicated to providing world-class instruments for trace elemental analysis.

Figure 1: Atomic Spectra for mercury (Hg), Copyright © Richard Pogge, All Rights Reserved

Atomic absorption spectroscopy

Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) is one of the first commercially available elemental analysis techniques. This tried-and-true method remains a top choice for its simplicity and reliability.

Read More

Tags: Hg analysis, Atomic Spectroscopy

The Benefits of Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence (CVAF) Spectroscopy for Mercury Determination

Posted by Sara Kennedy on Sep 14, 2022 2:50:00 PM

Cold Vapor Atomic Florescence Spectroscopy (CVAF)


In contrast to most cold vapor atomic absorption (CVAA) systems, the desirable characteristics of CVAFS-based mercury analyzers include:

Read More

Tags: CVAA, CVAF

Why Testing Mercury in Wastewater and Drinking Water Is Important

Posted by Sara Kennedy on Aug 23, 2022 5:54:21 PM

Factsheet and Understanding the Importance of Testing Mercury in Wastewater

What is Wastewater and Why Treat it?

Wastewater is made of all ‘used’ water. Its composition ranges widely from grey water produced in homes and businesses to runoff into storm drains. It also includes sewage sludge and industrial process waste. Wastewater contains any number of substances including chemicals, soaps, food scraps, oils, and human waste. Read More

Tags: Mercury in Wastewater

Who are the employees of Teledyne Tekmar/ Teledyne Leeman Labs - Aaron Keller

Posted by Teledyne Leeman Labs on Aug 10, 2022 8:20:21 AM

With today’s blog, let’s get to know the employees of Teledyne Tekmar/Leeman Labs. The next person I would like to introduce you to is Aaron Keller.

Aaron is the Leeman Labs Quality Control Chemist for the Mercury product line. He will be approaching his first full year of working Teledyne here soon.

Let's learn more about Aaron.

Read More

Tags: Teledyne Leeman Labs, Teledyne Tekmar

Who are the employees of Teledyne Tekmar/ Teledyne Leeman Labs - Sara Kennedy

Posted by Teledyne Leeman Labs on Aug 1, 2022 4:47:09 PM

With today’s blog, let’s get to know the employees of Teledyne Tekmar/Leeman Labs. The next person I would like to introduce you to is Sara Kennedy.

Sara is the Applications Chemist for Teledyne Leeman Labs. She is an expert in mercury analysis using the Quicktrace® and Hydra II product lines. She is responsible for the overlap between marketing and chemistry. Sara helps develop analytical methods for testing customer samples, provides technical input during sales calls, and provides guidance about all thing’s mercury analysis. Sara has been with Teledyne Leeman Labs for 3 years. She was previously the Quality Control Chemist for the Teledyne Leeman Labs product lines. She is also responsible for the Hydra II C catalyst production.

Let’s ask Sara some questions to get to know her better.

Read More

Tags: Teledyne Leeman Labs, Teledyne Tekmar

Mercury Testing in Water and Health Effects of Mercury in Drinking Water

Posted by Sara Kennedy on Jul 8, 2022 4:04:51 PM

Mercury Testing in Water and Health Effects of Mercury in Drinking Water

How does mercury get into drinking water supplies? How do we know when our drinking water is polluted? How does mercury contamination impact human health? In this blog we will focus on the sources of mercury in the environment, discuss health risks associated with mercury exposure, examine water treatment for mercury, review existing regulation designed to monitor and mitigate mercury and highlight Teledyne Leeman Labs’ role in manufacturing analyzers that test for mercury in water samples.

Read More

Tags: mercury

How Valid Is Your Data? - Part 2

Posted by Jeff Forsberg on Jun 7, 2022 9:01:34 AM

In my last blog (“How Valid Is Your Data? - Part 1”) we discussed what happens when samples enter the laboratory. We covered spiking of samples, control blanks and relative percent difference in sample concentrations. That discussion led me to close Part 1 with a “reality check” example from my own experience analyzing beverages. While everything looked great from the outside looking in… a hidden issue needed to be resolved: spectra did not match the control blanks and/or calibration. This indicated the existence of a kinetics issue in the online reduction reaction used to achieve elemental Hg – specifically, method timing constraints.

In Part 2 of this blog, I am happy to report that I’ve successfully analyzed brewed coffee, red wine, milk, orange juice, brewed tea and soda pop. The original method guidance I was using was written for ICP, via microwave digestion. Sometimes H2O2 is used to enhance oxidation in microwave digestion and the method did in fact use H2O2. Knowing that dissolved oxygen would interfere with the reduction used in the CVAA technique, I assumed that the digestion process would entirely consume the H2O2. Well it didn’t, hence my spectra issues which affected the results!

Read More

How Valid is your Data? - Part 1

Posted by Jeff Forsberg on Jun 3, 2022 7:46:52 AM

If this is your first time visiting www.teledyneleemanlabs.com and/or stumbling upon our blog, Teledyne Leeman Labs has been in the business of making benchtop mercury analyzers for over 30 years. Myself, I’ve been with the company, wearing a variety of different hats, for 24 years. Prior to landing this 24-year gig, I was an analytical research chemist at the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) in Grand Forks, ND. So, with a career like this, I’ve seen a lot of data - some good, and some not so good!

Read More

Tags: mercury analysis

Who are the employees of Teledyne Tekmar/ Teledyne Leeman Labs

Posted by Teledyne Leeman Labs on Jun 2, 2022 12:36:33 PM

With today’s blog, I thought maybe we could go down another direction and get to know the employees of Teledyne Tekmar/Leeman Labs. The first person I would like to introduce you to is Tyler Trent.

Tyler is the Elemental Product Marketing Manager for Teledyne Tekmar and Leeman Labs. He oversees the TOC, ICP and Hg product lines. Tyler is entering his 12th year at Teledyne. Over the 12 years he has cover a wide range of roles.

Tyler was hired right out of college and has held the following positions: Application Chemist, Application Sales Specialist, Europe Middle East, and Africa Sales Manager and now his most recent role of Elemental Product Marketing Manager.

Let’s ask Tyler some questions to get to know him better.

Read More

Tags: Teledyne Leeman Labs, Teledyne Tekmar