Determination of trichloroanisole and trichlorophenol in wineries' ambient air by passive sampling and thermal desorption-gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry.

The present paper describes the calibration of selected passive samplers used in the quantitation of trichlorophenol and trichloroanisole in wineries' ambient air, by calculating the corresponding sampling rates. The method is based on passive sampling with sorbent tubes and involves thermal desorption-gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry analysis. Three commercially available sorbents were tested using sampling cartridges with a radial design instead of axial ones. The best results were found for Tenax TA™. Sampling rates (R-values) for the selected sorbents were determined. Passive sampling was also used for accurately determining the amount of compounds present in the air. Adequate correlation coefficients between the mass of the target analytes and exposure time were obtained. The proposed validated method is a useful tool for the early detection of trichloroanisole and its precursor trichlorophenol in wineries' ambient air while avoiding contamination of wine or winery facilities.

Ozone-monitoring in Mendoza, Argentina: initial results.

A series of continuous ambient tropospheric ozone measurements were taken in Mendoza, Argentina, for a period of one year starting in November 1995. The data obtained were analyzed in terms of diurnal and annual variation. Indications were found of the strong impact of the mountain-valley circulation system, which ventilates and considerably cleans the air in Mendoza. The data are discussed in comparison with air pollution in the German city of Leipzig. In Mendoza, the high concentration of precursors and the strong solar radiation contribute to high levels of ozone. In fact, monitoring reveals considerably lower concentrations than in Leipzig, owing to the diluting effect of local meteorology. The low-level jet is mainly active during the summer. It lowers the peak mid-day ozone concentration and produces a temporary concentration increase at night. The Environmental Protection Agency standard of a maximum one-hour mean concentration of 0.250 mg ozone/m3 (125 ppb) is never reached, and the World Health Organization standard of 0.113 mg ozone/m3 (56.5 ppb) is only rarely exceeded during winter.

On the estimate of capillary electrophoresis blanks: application to detection limits evaluation as recommended by IUPAC.

A new method to obtain the signal associated with an electrophoretic blank is presented to be included in the calibration procedures. The signal assigned to the blank is obtained by direct integration of the background noise using extrapolated values of the base-peak width at different concentrations in order to obtain the zero concentration. Detection limits that are better adjusted to a statistical evaluation are thus implemented, as recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The detection limit has been examined for a series of linear alkyl benzenesulfonates (C10-C13) and total linear alkyl benzenesulfonates that are widely used in many different commercial products.

Determination of warfarin at trace-levels in water by solid-phase spectrofluorimetry.

A new selective and sensitive spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of warfarin at trace levels (0.2-50.0 ng/ml) in water is proposed. Warfarin is fixed on Sephadex QAE A-25 gel (at pH = 7.0) and its fluorescence is measured directly in the solid-phase using a 1-mm silica cell at 312/385 nm with a detection/quantification limit of 0.06/0.2 ng/ml, a relative standard deviation of 2.3% and recoveries between 95 and 105%. The method is applied to the determination of warfarin residues in water.