The Standard – January 2012

Recent analysis of data collected over a ten-year period in the Great Lakes indicates the presence of numerous types of chemical compounds. From pharmaceuticals and personal care products to pesticides, plasticizers to flame retardants, many different chemicals used in daily life are finding their way to the flora and fauna of the Great Lakes, with implications on the ecosystem and resultant call for regulations.

Glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide in current production, is widely used to control pests in corn and soybean fields. Little is known about the fate of glyphosate after it has entered the soil after spraying, so it – and its degradation products AMPA and glufosinate – have become compounds of interest for study. The USGS has introduced a method to determine the presence of certain pesticides in water using isotope dilution, and more information is available about this process here.

Toxaphene as a class of compounds has been regulated since the 1980s because of its persistence in the environment, and certain degradation products of toxaphene are of interest because of the manner in which they bioaccumulate in humans. Study of prolonged toxaphene usage has been hampered by the lack of availability of quality degradation products, particularly Parlar compounds. CIL has recently introduced labeled and unlabeled standards for toxaphene analysis.