CHEE482

036482

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have become major scientific and political issues. Many of these environmental contaminants have been detected in air, water, soil, and/or biota. Most CECs are identified and quantified based on non-standardized methods, often with limited or questionable quality assurance and quality control. At times, public policy and resource allocation are based on these uncertain data. Moreover, there are thousands of potential contaminants for which no analytical methodologies have yet been developed. Through this course, students will become familiar with the diversity of analytical (instrumental) and bioanalytical (bioassays) tools currently available, and will gain knowledge as to the pros and cons of each approach. The class also will discuss future opportunities, such as development of on-line sensors and miniaturization of environmental methods. While the emphasis of the course will be on water analysis, the class will also briefly discuss implications for other environmental matrices such as biosolids, sediments, solids, tissues, body fluids, and aerosols. Contaminants will be discussed in terms of classes (i.e., pharmaceuticals, steroid hormones, nanoparticles, metals, disinfection byproducts) as well as physical chemical properties (i.e., water solubility, acid/base, volatility, molecular weight, molecular geometry). This class will provide a hands-on experience with the key instrument platforms such as gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection, inductively coupled plasma with mass spectrometric detection, liquid chromatography with diode array UV, fluorescence, and mass spectrometric detection. Instruction on select instrumental software platforms will also be demonstrated and basic integration, calibration, and data export will be discussed. Cellular and whole animal bioassays for the screening of complex mixtures of contaminants will be discussed and demonstrated. The key principals of toxicity identification and evaluation (TIE) will be covered in this class, along with real world examples of how TIE is used to determine causes of observed environmental toxicity. Students will work independently and as groups to investigate a key issue relative to environmental analysis, write a paper on this topic, and present and defend their findings before the class.

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Undergraduate

015063

CHEE582