Mar 3, 2014
Join us at the AEHS Foundation’s 24th Annual International Conference on Soil, Water, Energy, and Air in sunny San Diego, CA from March 17-20. This popular conference brings together environmental professionals from across a variety of industries to present and discuss soil, water, and air contamination. Brooks Rand Labs representative and Technical Sales Specialist, Elizabeth Madonick will be attending the conference to stay abreast of these important environmental topics.
Michelle Briscoe, President of Brooks Rand Labs, and Frank McFarland, Vice President of Quality, will be traveling to our Nation’s capital March 18-19, 2014 for the annual American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL) Policies and Practices Conference. This conference combines government relations and business practices roundtable discussions for independent laboratories, both important topics to Brooks Rand Labs leadership.
Feb 4, 2014
Brooks Rand Labs participated in a recently-published interlaboratory certification campaign for trace metals and methylmercury in scallop samples for the Marine Environmental Studies Laboratory (MESL) of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Environment Laboratories (IAEA-NAEL). Of the sixteen laboratories that participated in the study, Brooks Rand Labs was the only one whose results were used in the certification of every analyte that appears on the resulting IAEA-452 CRM Certificate. View the Certification Report for CRM IAEA-452 (Scallop). In this report, Brooks Rand Labs is referenced as Laboratory Code 9.
Feb 3, 2014
In case you missed us at the 2014 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in Florida from January 6 through January 11, our Trace Metals Research Chemist, Tamas Ugrai, presented a poster on a Brooks Rand Study, entitled “An International Intercomparison Study for Arsenic Speciation in Food”. The study focused on arsenic speciation in four food matrices: brown rice flour, white rice flour, kelp powder, and apple juice. Read more about the study by downloading the poster and the final study report. Brooks Rand Labs specializes in Arsenic Speciation and metals analyses of food products. To find out more contact us today!
Feb 3, 2014
The daunting question of how to manage land and wildlife with respects to impacts made by mercury cycling and bioaccumulation are difficult to address on a local, regional, national, and international level. In a collaborative effort lead by the Biodiversity Research Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey, with involvement of mercury researches from many agencies and institutions, the Western North American Synthesis (WNAMS) Project was created to take on these questions. WNAMS is comprised of the world’s leading mercury researchers who are compiling data (sediment, water, invertebrates and other biota, emissions, mining, etc.) and formulating a holistic synthesis of the western regions of the U.S., Canada, and parts of Mexico. The intent of this project is to better determine the factors which drive mercury methylation and accumulation. This knowledge is essential for management and long term planning, and will hopefully reduce mercury impacts.
An endeavor such as this worthy of much more coverage; Brooks Rand Labs would encourage you to read about this project further at the Biodiversity Research Institute website. Also, data sets that have not been made publicly available would be welcomed for evaluation; please contact one of the four principal investigators listed on the website regarding submittal.
For more than 25 years, Brooks Rand Labs has been involved in supporting vital mercury research such as the WNAMS project with our specialized mercury speciation services.
Jan 22, 2014
In the Seattle Public School District, the Jane Addams K-8 ESTEM (Environmental Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) school is going to be temporarily housed at the John Marshall School building for the 2014-2016 school years while a new school building is built to house their program. Recent studies of the drinking water quality at John Marshall, an older building with mainly galvanized steel water pipes, have indicated that at least a third (10 out of 34) of the drinking water sources tested do not meet the criteria for lead (Pb) and/copper (Cu). In addition, sinks in bathrooms, which are sometimes used by students for refilling their water bottles, were never tested.
In support of the Jane Addams K-8 Working Group on Air and Water Quality at John Marshall, Brooks Rand Labs is donating analytical services to perform additional drinking water testing for lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) at John Marshall School, and volunteers from Brooks Rand Labs’ staff are donating their time to perform the sample collection services at the school.
Dec 4, 2013
Mercury is a dangerous neurological toxin and too much exposure has been responsible for several poisoning outbreaks around the world. Routes of exposure and metabolism have been well documented for elemental mercury, organic mercury, and inorganic mercury. In general, organic mercury forms are considered to be the most toxic; however, some studies have indicated that ethylmercury and methylmercury are handled differently by the body and therefore have differing toxicities. Ethylmercury is a breakdown product from a commonly used preservative in vaccines for humans and animals, as well as in some cosmetics, and it needs to be studied more comprehensively before its safety can be determined. Annie Carter, VP of Operations at Brooks Rand Labs, along with Elizabeth Madonick, Technical Sales Specialist, recently published an article on ethylmercury analysis in Environment Industry Magazine. View the Environmental Industry Magazine featuring the Ethylmercury and Human Health article on page 134.
Dec 4, 2013
Arsenic is present in the environment as a naturally occurring element or as a result of contamination from human activity, and is found in either the organic or more toxic inorganic form. In an effort to understand and manage arsenic-related risks associated with the consumption of rice and rice products in the US marketplace, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently (September 2013) released the analytical results for inorganic arsenic in approximately 1,100 new samples of rice and rice products (in addition to the approximately 200 samples that the FDA initially tested and released findings for in September 2012). The FDA concluded that the levels of inorganic arsenic found in its testing were too low to cause immediate or short-term adverse health effects. The FDA’s work going forward will center on long-term risk and ways to manage it with a focus on long-term exposure. Download a copy of the most recent FDA report.
Oct 4, 2013
Michelle Briscoe, President of Brooks Rand Labs, and Frank McFarland, Vice President of Quality, will be traveling to sunny Scottsdale, Arizona, October 6-9, 2013, for the 76th Annual American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL) Meeting. This meeting provides a unique opportunity for environmental and food science professionals to share industry solutions to unique issues, and also provides educational opportunities by experienced and knowledgeable industry leaders.
Tiffany Stilwater, BRL’s Client Services Manager, will be attending the 11th Biannual State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference in Oakland, CA, from October 29-30. The Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) is partnering with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) to host the RMP Annual Meeting in conjunction with the State of the Estuary Conference. The 20/20 Vision: Past Reflections, Future Directions will be the conference focus through professional technical presentations, interactive discussions and educational outreach programs all designed to ensure the health of the San Francisco Estuary.
Sep 3, 2013
Brooks Rand Labs organized an interlaboratory comparison study for Arsenic Speciation in Food and Juice, in which 41 labs from around the world participated in. The study was initiated to provide a reliable means for laboratories to evaluate their methods for the analysis of difference forms of arsenic in rice, kelp, and apple juice. Click here to download the report for the study.
The results of this study were also presented at the AOAC Annual Meeting in Chicago on August 27th (download presentation). Brooks Rand Labs plans to conduct this study on an annual basis; if interested in participating in future studies contact BRL President, Michelle Briscoe.
Aug 16, 2013
Ethylmercury is a major component of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative, and it has neurotoxic effects that are similar to those of methylmercury, but its tissue deposition and clearance rates in organisms are not well-understood. In order to better understand the tissue deposition patterns of mercury originating from vaccines, a rapid, sensitive, simple analytical method for determining mercury species in biological tissues was developed at Brooks Rand Labs and our own Dr. Joel Creswell presented our findings at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. To download the poster click here or contact us to learn more about our specialized analytical services for the determination of mercury and mercury species in biological tissues.
