Teledyne Leeman Labs Blog

With millions of consumers reportedly getting sick each year from foodborne diseases, how do food analysts know the best methods to keep products safe, manage risk and protect the integrity of their brands?  With the variety of methods available in the battle of food defense, food safety experts have to carefully hone their choices. A recent article in Lab Manager magazine went into more detail about a few of these methods.

An abandoned ammo factory in Kings Mill, Ohio is on the EPA list as one of the most contaminated sites in the country. The site, once home to the Peter’s Cartridge Company, could be the new home to luxury apartments and commercial office space overseeing the Little Miami River. The $25 million plan, which includes 120-130 apartments and 23,000 square feet of commercial space, is dependent on whether the site can be remediated from the mercury, copper and lead that has contaminated the soil for more than a century.

When it comes to analytical testing, there is a single organization that sets the requirements and develops the methods for determining the purity of reagent chemicals, the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Teledyne Leeman Labs recently completed an analysis of reagent chemicals to determine their ultratrace elemental levels. The purpose of the analysis was to “demonstrate the ability of the Teledyne Leeman Lab’s Prodigy7 simultaneous ICP-OES, to quickly and accurately determine ultratrace elemental levels in selected reagent grade chemicals.” The company performed the analysis using procedures developed by the ACS. Results were then compared with ACS specifications.

Teledyne Leeman Labs recently used its Prodigy7 ICP-OES to analyze beverages for mineral and heavy metal content. The goal of the analysis was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system and method in measuring mineral and heavy metal content in a variety of beverage samples. The results of the analysis were compared with the drinking water standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization.

Illegal gold mining operations in Peru have forced the Peruvian government to declare a state of emergency for the next two month. While the gold is valuable, the extracted process from surrounding areas has created a major health problem for local residents.

Leeman Labs is a pioneer in the ICP spectrometry industry, and we were the first to use an Echelle spectrometer for ICP-OES. Recently we added our new Prodigy Plus High Dispersion ICP Spectrometer to our family of ICP-OES instruments. The Prodigy Plus builds upon our legacy and experience, while incorporating new state-of-the-art technology.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a new plan to address the Environmental Management (EM) challenge of mercury contamination at two sites in Tennessee and South Carolina. The plan “advocates for research and the development of technologies that could resolve key technical uncertainties with mercury in environmental remediation, the deactivation and decommissioning of facilities, and processing waste in tanks.”

A research team at Flinders University in Australia has “developed an inexpensive, non-toxic polymer that can absorb hazardous mercury compounds out of water and soil.” The secret ingredient of the polymer is a colorless liquid hydrocarbon that is extracted from the peel of citrus fruits such as lemons, limes and oranges. The process to extract limonene, which gives citrus fruits their smell, includes centrifugal separation and steam distillation.

According to a paper published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, limonene is combined with an equal mass of molten sulfur and synthesized to form a sulfur-limonene polysulfide compound. The two-phase mixture becomes a single, dark red phase upon reaction. The mixture turns a bright yellow in the presence of mercury.

While mercury levels in rainfall and other forms of precipitation have fallen along the East Coast, other sites in the center of North America are reporting increased levels of the toxic element, pushing overall trends for the continent in a positive direction.

Mercury Analysis Systems

In our previous blog post “What is Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption (CVAA) Spectroscopy?” (HERE), we discussed CVAAS as a primary technique for mercury analysis and determination. In this post, we will describe Teledyne Leeman Labs’ mercury analyzers (analysers outside of the US and Canada) that use the CVAAS process.

Leeman Labs offers two CVAA systems for mercury determination: the Hydra II_AA , which is an entry-level CVAA system that can detect mercury limits of less than 5.0 ng/L with a usable range of 5 ng/L to 1 mg/L; and the QuickTrace® M-7600 CVAA mercury analyzer, which is a dual-beam system capable of ultra-trace detection limits of less than 0.5 ng/L.