Have you ever wondered about the day-to-day functioning of a commercial dioxin/POPs lab?- What do they do on a daily basis?
- Who are their customers?
- What kind of sample matrices do they analyze?
- What are they looking for in the analytical instrumentation?
If you search for the term ‘dioxin’ on the internet you will find thousands of results explaining what dioxins are and how they can be analyzed. Significantly, you will find many results displayed for the negative effects they have on the environment, in food and beverage and, as such, on human health.
If you have never had the chance to visit or would like to visit a working laboratory, now is your chance to see, from the comfort of your desk, how a real, functioning commercial dioxin lab operates.
Pacific Rim Laboratories Inc., based near Vancouver, Canada, kindly invited my colleagues to their facility to take a look around and introduced them to their daily operation and workflow functionality. They gave them a hands-on view of the analysis of dioxins and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) using Thermo Fisher Scientific instruments. During the visit, David Hope, CEO, explained how the lab works with customers all over the world to analyze food and environmental samples.
Automation, an extremely important asset for a busy routine lab, is key for Pacific Rim Laboratories Inc. They recently added both the Thermo Scientific™ ASE™ 350 Accelerated Solvent Extractor and Thermo Scientific Rocket™ Evaporator System to make their sample preparation workflow more productive.
Starting the analytical testing in the GC-MS lab, where the “big players” for dioxin analysis are located, David Hope and Patrick Pond, chief technology officer (CTO) of Pacific Rim Laboratories Inc. and continued to explain how the Thermo Scientific DFS Magnetic Sector GC-HRMS and the Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 8000 Evo Triple Quadrupole GC-MS/MS enable them to be flexible and diverse as the samples and analytes are tested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97FH_wmTz_g&t=1s
From a performance and compliance perspective, Pacific Rim Laboratories Inc. has increased the sample throughput of the DFS Magnetic Sector GC-HRMS by adding the DualData XL Option. Watch the webinar to learn more.
Finally, thanks to the complete Thermo Fisher analytical solution for dioxins and POPs analysis they are able to serve their customers in an efficient way. Being a busy routine lab, they are looking for automation, robustness and performance; with the combination of the Thermo Fisher solutions they are able to meet their customers’ demands as well as their business objectives.
View this webinar: “A Deeper Look into the Life of Dioxins and POPs Lab Tips from the Experts” for David Hope’s “how-to-guide” for commercial dioxin labs. From sample to data analysis, he explains the different steps needed for the analysis of dioxins, either in food and beverage or environmental samples.
Other useful resources:
Gold standard in dioxins and POPs analysis
POPs Compendium
POPs Brochure
Learning Center
Thermo Fisher Scientific
United States
