The Standard – December 2021

Welcome to the December 2021 edition of “The Standard,” CIL’s newsletter for issues related to environmental, food, water, and human exposure testing. In this issue we highlight why neonicotinoids are of particular concern, introduce new nitrosamine standard mixtures, and other environmental offerings from CIL.

Neonicotinoids of Particular Concern and Results from the 2019 European Union Report on Pesticide Residues in Food

Three neonicotinoid pesticides – clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam – have been of increased interest in both the United States and Europe for their potential adverse effects. Neonicotinoids have previously been speculated as a possible cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honeybees, and in August 2021 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) released draft evaluations stating the likelihood that clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam can adversely affect more than 1,000 endangered plants and animals.¹

New Nitrosamines Mixes – US EPA Method 521 and More!

Since the initial reports of nitrosamine contamination in blood pressure medicines in 2018, screening lists have become more commonplace for nitrosamine levels in medications and other matrices. CIL has offered stable isotope-labeled and native individual nitrosamine standards for many years and has recently developed multi-component mixtures to support comprehensive testing.

‘Isotope’ – It May Be Our Middle Name, but it Is not Our Only Business

CIL’s environmental product line is regularly expanding and updating to meet customer needs, with a current inventory of approximately 3,700 different products, including options as single-component formulated standards as well as multi-component mixtures. While CIL started out making strictly "environmental” contaminant standards, the scope of the offerings has expanded to include products for food, water, and exposure analysis. Of the 3,700 products in the portfolio, it might be interesting to note that some 1,100 are native or “unlabeled” products.