ENVIRONMENT

Ultra-trace and Toxicology

AGAT Laboratories offers Ultra-trace analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) such as Dioxins and Furans, PCBs and PAHs via Gas Chromatography/High Resolution Mass Spectrometry. Our Ultra-trace, Toxicology and Specialty Analysis operations are accredited by CALA, the SCC and the Ministère de l’Environnement et de l’Action en matière de changement climatique (MDDELCC) for specific tests.

Natural processes such as bioaccumulation and biomagnification can concentrate many of these compounds, increasing their threat to living organisms in the environment. For this reason, low-level detection of these pollutants is important.

Our Analytical Services

AGAT Laboratories is capable of providing high resolution, analytical results for the testing of Dioxins, Furans, PFAS, PCBs and PAHs in varied environmental matrices including:

• Soil/sediment
• Tissue/biological
• Ground/surface water
• Drinking water
• Air

Our Ultra-trace, Toxicology and Food Testing Divisions also provide services geared toward the Life Sciences sector. These services include LC-MS-MS technology and some additional GCMS instrumentation.

This technology will be designed to test for the following parameters:

• Perchlorates in environmental samples.
• Alkyl Phenols, Alkyl Phenol Ethoxylates and pharmaceuticals in environmental samples.
• Per and Poly-Fluroinated Alkyl Substances in environmental samples.
• Additional vitamins and sugars in food samples.
• Comprehensive Pesticide Residue Screening in food samples.
• Antibiotics in food, blood and urine samples.
• Mycotoxins and melamine in food samples and containers.

Our Instrumentation

AGAT Laboratories utilizes High Resolution Mass Spectrometer (HRMS) for our ultra-trace testing. With these instruments available in Eastern and Western Canada, we process samples in a turn-around time of 15 days. Additionally, we have the resources to take on rush-orders in which the turn-around time is 5 to 7 days, depending on the number of samples.

With the HRMS, data results are uncompromisingly accurate to levels at or above detection limits. This results from using exact masses for detection compounds. We use a total of four exact masses to positively identify a compound.

Our Trace Organics Experience

AGAT Laboratories’ experience includes many projects with analytical work for underground storage tanks, pesticide residues in many applications, PCBs for utilities and hygiene, identification of unknowns for waste classification, solvent scans for landfill purposes, organic halide determinations, materials stability studies, organic vapour determinations, product purity, groundwater monitoring and many others.

Certain environmental situations call for a direct assessment of toxic effects upon specific types of organisms. This testing is very broad and shows the potential effects of releasing substances into the environment, usually through waterways. Organisms such as rainbow trout, daphnia magna and microtox (bioluminescent bacteria) may be destroyed by the improper release of toxins.

Exposing these organisms to the solution to be released will prove if a toxic effect will potentially occur. In this way, negative effects take place in the lab on an extremely small scale rather than in nature on a large and catastrophic scale.

Clients utilizing these services include oil and gas companies, manufacturing companies, waste treatment facilities, materials safety personnel, airports, recyclers and a variety of other organizations. The professionals in this area also focus on microbiological work such as the assessment of total and fecal coliforms, bacterial identification, enumeration and total plate counts.

Persistent Pollutants Dioxins and Furans

Dioxins and Furans are a group of compounds (called congeners) that share similar chemical and physical properties. They are the by-products of various chemical processes such as:

• Smelting
• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) production
• Bleaching processes for pulp and paper
• Industrial burning and medical incinerators
• Synthesis of chlorinated compounds

PCBs

PCBs bind to particular matter in the atmosphere and get deposited over great distances. Planar and co-planar PCBs lay flat and thus are extremely persistent. They are formed through several more processes than Dioxins and Furans. Some of these include:

• Transformer oils
• Almost all incineration processes
• Dye manufacturing
• Forest fires
• Leaching from municipal waste
• Plastic/Rubber production

PCBs have been known to cause a variety of adverse health effects such as cancer in animals, suppression of the immune system, adverse reproductive effects and endocrine disrupting effects. The 209 congeners are named using an International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) convention – depending on the placement of chlorines on the bi-phenyl. These names are known as the BZ number.

All 209 congeners are considered toxic to some degree and are banned from use. There are 12 congeners in particular that the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed to be the most toxic and these congeners have been aptly referred to as the WHO-12. AGAT Laboratories offers CALA accredited HRMS services for the analysis of these WHO-12 PCBs.

PAHs

PAHs are a group of compounds that contain two or more benzene rings fused together in different confirmations. There are over 100 of these compounds, however 17 are more toxic than the rest.

They are formed from various sources including:

• Incomplete combustion of wood products.
• Combustion of fossil fuels.
• Industrial processes involving incineration.
• Forest fires (largest natural producer).
• Health effects from PAHs include cancer, adverse reproductive effects, lung damage and kidney damage.

AGAT Laboratories offers CALA accredited HRMS analysis on a suite of PAHs which includes:

• Naphthalene
• Acenaphthylene
• Acenaphthene
• Fluorene
• Anthracene
• Fluoroanthene
• Pyrene
• Benzo[a] Anthracene
• Chrysene
• Benzo[b] Fluoranthene
• Benzo[k] Fluoranthene
• Benzo[a] Pyrene
• Indeno[1,2,3, c-d] Pyrene
• Benzo[g,h,i]
• Perylene
• Dibenzo[a,h]
• Anthracene

2,3,7,8 TCDD

This has been tagged as the most toxic chemical ever identified. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), it is a known human carcinogen and can cause a host of medical problems.