The Standard – August 2011

Welcome to the August 2011 edition of “The Standard,” our newsletter for issues related to environmental, food, water, and human exposure testing.

Plasticizers in Food Are Now Substances of Higher Concern

Two popular phthalate plasticizers have been discontinued following a recent announcement that they would be regulated under REACH. Amid growing health concerns, and now international regulations, CIL has been developing an extensive line of phthalate standards, both parent and mono-ester metabolites, to assist in compliance monitoring and human exposure evaluation.

Bisphenol A Under Increased Scrutiny for Health Effects

The EPA has added bisphenol A, a chemical used in the production of plastic goods, to the list of chemicals being studied for potential regulation. Health concerns arising from the volume of bisphenol A released into the environment have led to discussion on the need for further investigation.

Endosulfans Added to Stockholm Convention POPs

In April 2011, the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP5) to the Stockholm Convention was held in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting representatives from 127 nations agreed to add endosulfan to the list of POPs chemicals, making it the 22nd chemical banned under the Convention. There were, however, some concessions to the use of this compound.

No Quantitation without Representation!

Yves Tondeur of Analytical Perspectives (Wilmington, NC) presents an article on using additional isotopically labeled internal standards to improve confidence in analytical data. This is the first in a series of guest articles from prominent researchers in the environmental field. We would like to thank Yves and Analytical Perspectives and reiterate our call for guest articles.