The year is well under way and people and companies have settled into their daily routine. All labs, and especially routine contract testing laboratories, need to sustain high productivity. When it comes to POPs and Dioxin labs, productivity must also be matched with compliance to existing regulations and ‘future-proofed’ against possible changes.In a recent interview, David Hope and Patrick Pond experienced analysts and the founders of Pacific Rim Laboratories, Inc. a Vancouver-based dioxin contract testing laboratory, share experiences, tips and tricks that have underpinned their success. Here we summarize a few.
1. Integrated analytical workflow
A sample-to-results workflow for dioxin and POPs analysis requires many steps and a number of different analytical technologies. Pacific Rim Laboratories, Inc. has developed and implemented a comprehensive integrated workflow, which is fully compliant with existing global regulations.
Their extraction system of choice is the Thermo Scientific™ ASE™ 350 Extraction System, which allows a seamless transfer of samples to the Thermo Scientific™ Rocket™ Evaporator, both supporting an integrated and automated process ensuring excellent reproducibility of results.
Their GC-MS lab features two Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 8000 Triple Quadrupole GC-MS/MS Systems (check out the new Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 9000 Triple Quadrupole GC-MS/MS System) and three Thermo Scientific™ DFS™ Magnetic Sector GC-HRMS for quantitative and confirmatory analysis of Dioxins PCBs and PBDEs.
Last but not least, software platforms allow processing and reporting of data for a better evaluation for their final customer.
2. Robustness
Each step in the workflow has proven to be rugged with minimal downtime over many years. This is essential in order to meet customer expectations for timely delivery of results.
3. Productivity
As the lab experienced increased analysis volume, they invested in more analytical solutions to better support the demand of their customers. Their latest addition is the Thermo Scientific DFS Magnetic Sector GC-HRMS equipped with the Thermo Scientific DualData XL Option, enabling the lab to perform almost double the number of analysis of Dioxins in the same time, or alternatively switch between different applications very quickly.
This has proved to be very beneficial to the laboratory and to their customers by enabling the analysis of more samples in less time at a lower cost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEhrXjFrdZI&list=PLKwWDQi8rdCp7f3fK39a_8VCKq_8V4bjZ&index=2
4. Quality results
The goal of Pacific Rim Laboratories, Inc. is to deliver high quality data and results to their end-customers. They perform dioxins and other POPs analysis on diverse samples types from soil (read about the monitoring program QRCode Campania Trasparente, aimed at certifying and protecting en... and watch the webinar here) to food and feed samples for governmental agencies. Pacific Rim Laboratories, Inc. need the right analytical solutions for challenging matrices and for compliance to existing regulations.
What are the tips and tricks of your lab? Please let us know in the comments below.
Learn more about how Pacific Rim Laboratories, Inc. are successfully supporting their customers for Dioxins and POPs analysis, by listening to the Tips and Tricks given in the webinar by Dave Hope “A Deeper Look into the Life of a Dioxin Lab.” Watch now here.
Download the new resource guide containing information on the history of POPs, the implications of their early occurrence, and today’s analytical testing methods for their accurate determination in chemical laboratories as an introduction to this global issue
If you want to know more about POPs in food take a look at the brochure.
For more videos and resources about magnetic sector technology visit: thermofisher.com/GoldStandard or read the smart note about the advantages of magnetic sector instruments.
Thermo Fisher Scientific
United States
