Environmental Monitoring

Specific tools are required for the environmental monitoring of contaminants

Environmental monitoring is the survey of contaminants, chemical products or any other parameters on air, water or soil.

Several families of contaminants are mainly monitored but investigations also focuses on new emerging contaminants.

  • Drug residues
  • Pesticides
  • PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) composed of several aromatic rings
  • PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls), Furans and Dioxins which are persistent organic pollutants (POP)
  • Endocrines disruptors (Bisphenols, synthetic estrogens)
  • Perfluorinated compounds
  • Biotoxins are microalgal toxins dissolved in seawater such as Pectenotoxin (PTXs), Yessotoxin (YTX), Okadaic acid (OA)/ Dinophysistoxin (DTXs) and Azaspiracids (AZAs)

AFFINISEP markets a large range of passive samplers to collect these molecules on surface water or on groundwater :

  • Passive samplers based on SPE disks are designed to provide TWA concentration of polar or non polar organic compounds as well as metals during the sampling period. This passive sampler is very simple of use to extract the contaminants. These tools are also available for groundwater monitoring.
  • The Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) is designed to provide the time weighted average (TWA) concentration of hydrophilic organic chemicals (pesticides, drug residues, Glyphosate & AMPA, EDCs…) during the sampling period. POCIS can be supplied with or without Performance Reference Compound (PRC). Historically developed for polar compounds, some applications have been developped for non polar compounds such as Perfluorinated compounds (PFAS) thanks to the right combination of sorbent/membranes. These tools are also available for groundwater monitoring.
  • Silicone rubbers are the convenient tools for the uptake of non-polar contaminants such as PAHs or PCBs.
  • Solid phase adsorption toxin tracking (SPATT) is a new monitoring tool that simulates the biotoxin contamination of filter feeding bivalves.

The French Ministry of Ecological Transition has published an order allowing the use of passive integrative samplers (PIS) for the monitoring of priority and relevant substances in the water matrix.

> Consult the legislative text for the monitoring of water – Annexes II et III (in French)

Applications

Waters