Sep 3, 2014
Dr. Chris Eckley, an environmental scientist and geochemist with the US EPA, presented his latest research at Brooks Rand Labs on August 20th as part of BRL’s monthly seminar series for the professional development of our staff. Dr. Eckley’s presentation, Mercury Transport and Transformation at the Black Butte Mine Superfund Site, reported on some interesting findings related to methylmercury production in the Cottage Grove Reservoir in Oregon, which was the first body of water in Oregon to have a fish consumption public health advisory listed due to high mercury levels. Brooks Rand Labs has been involved in the mercury research being conducted at the Black Butte Mine and surrounding areas for many years. Learn more about BRL’s mercury and mercury speciation services, or request a quote today!
Sep 3, 2014
It is commonly believed that dietary ingestion of one of the most toxic forms of mercury, methylmercury, is primarily due to eating fish. This is not necessarily the case in many areas of the world where rice is a staple food and the levels of methylmercury in rice have been found at potentially concerning levels. However, it is unclear whether methylmercury in rice is more toxic to humans than exposure through fish ingestion. Mercury contamination of rice has not yet had the same visibility and popularity as other food toxicity issues. To address this, Sarah Rothenberg (University of South Carolina), Lisamarie Windham-Myers (USGS), and Joel Creswell (Brooks Rand Instruments) have written a fascinating paper that consolidates and summarizes the most significant research on this topic in the past 30 years. To view the abstract and obtain a copy of this paper (PMID: 24972509), please click here.
Aug 4, 2014
Here at Brooks Rand Labs, we have noticed many of our Canadian clients are working under new discharge permits with lower method detection limit (MDL) requirements for total mercury (Hg). Some water quality guidelines are even demanding site-specific detection limits as low as 0.10 ng/L for Hg. Brooks Rand Labs is able to comply with these new requirements, offering a 0.10 ng/L MDL for all clients (worldwide) for Hg analysis via EPA Method 1631E. There is no additional charge for this low-level MDL. If your project requires ultra-low level MDLs (for any analyte), contact us today!
Jun 10, 2014
Are your samples being properly prepared to avoid high bias due to interferences? EPA Method 1632A is the only EPA Method published for arsenic speciation in tissue samples, and it is usually the first choice for many regulatory-driven and government-funded projects. EPA Method 1632A describes two different digestion techniques that may be used for determination of dimethylarsinic acid (DMAs), and recent research conducted by Brooks Rand Labs has demonstrated that data produced by one of the digestion methods can be biased high for DMAs if the samples being analyzed contain significant amount of arsenobetaine (AsB), the most common form of arsenic found in most fin fish.
Come see Annie Carter, BRL’s VP of Operations, present on this topic (view the abstract) at the National Environmental Monitoring Conference (NEMC) in Washington D.C. on August 7th.
Jun 10, 2014
Brooks Rand Labs is organizing the 2nd annual Interlaboratory Comparison Study for Arsenic Speciation in Food. With so few available reference materials that are certified for inorganic arsenic and other individual arsenic species, this study provides one of the few means for laboratories to evaluate their methods of analyzing arsenic species in food matrices, such as rice and fish.
The results of the 2013 Intercomparison Study were presented at the AOAC International Annual Meeting last year. That study had participation from 39 labs from around the globe and was considered a huge success. If you are a lab that performs arsenic speciation analyses in food, you are invited to participate in the 2014 study! For more information about this year’s study, or to register as a participant, please click here. The registration deadline for this year’s study is July 10th, 2014 July 15th, 2014.
May 5, 2014
Brooks Rand Labs appreciates how important a positive workplace environment can be to employee satisfaction. In response, BRL allows our staff to bring their pets to work with them (within limits). This contributes to a more pleasant, reduced-stress environment for people that probably spend more time at work than their waking hours at home! Does this sound familiar to some of you?
At BRL we have the pleasure of spending our time and sharing our office space with following canines…Lucy, Teddy, Balin, Oliver, and the sweetest girl, Princess!
Apr 1, 2014
Registration for the 2014 Department of Defense (DoD) Environmental Monitoring & Data Quality (EMDQ) Workshop from April 8-10 in Omaha, Nebraska has reached maximum capacity! Did you reserve your spot? If so, say hello to BRL Representative and Technical Sales Specialist, Elizabeth Madonick. She will be attending this important workshop to ensure that Brooks Rand Labs stays abreast of current developments with DoD environmental monitoring.
Apr 1, 2014
The controversial Alberta tar sands has sparked heavy debate amongst government agencies, politicians, industry, First Nations communities, concerned citizens, and Hollywood celebrities. Environmental degradation, water quality issues, human health, and energy demands are at the heart of the matter. But, what exactly are the tar sands? In short, Canada’s tar sands extracted oil product is not like conventional crude oil. The substance, also referred to as bitumen, is sticky, thick oil that cannot flow down a pipeline prior to intense processing. The naturally occurring oil present in the tar sands is comprised of clay, sand, water, and roughly 10% bitumen. Pollutant monitoring plans have been initiated to assess the impacts of the tar sands processing activities.
BRL has extensive experience testing for the metals and metals species of concern (such as methylmercury) or interest (such as rare earth elements). Such complex samples require a high degree of expertise!
Mar 3, 2014
Between recreation and brine shrimp commerce, Utah’s Great Salt Lake (GSL) contributes a significant amount of money to Utah’s economy. Therefore, it made big news roughly a decade ago when methylmercury results from the lake were found to be the highest ever seen in a body of water in the United States.
There are still many questions about mercury sources and mechanisms of mercury transport in the GSL, but great strides have been made in recent years. Research has shown that mercury bioaccumulation in the GSL is largely fueled by its unique geography that has caused the formation of a deep, anoxic, super-saline environment referred to as the “deep brine layer”. The highest mercury levels can be found in the deep brine layer and it is hypothesized that its existence is one of the factors involved with the unusually high methylation rates of the mercury observed in the GSL.
Erin F. Jones and Professor Wayne Wurtsbaugh of Utah State University just recently had their paper on the deep brine layer of the Great Salt Lake published in Limnology and Oceanography. This paper is very useful for understanding mercury issues in the Great Salt Lake and elsewhere. To find out more read the abstract online.
Brooks Rand Labs performed the low-level total mercury and methylmercury analyses reported in this paper for the Great Salt Lake water samples.
The US EPA Method 1669, Sampling Ambient Water for Trace Metals at EPA Water Criteria Levels, can be a complex and challenging method for those who are not experienced in “clean hands/dirty hands” sampling for low-level metals. Even for the most knowledgeable field samplers, every new site brings its own obstacles and the method has to be constantly modified to collect samples within the performance-based guidelines.
Taking one of our in-person