Congrats to Greg Mercer from USFDA Pacific Regional Lab for winning the NACRW 2016 “UCT Excellence in Sample Preparation Award”

Many contaminants are now entering the composition of industrial and domestic products (personal care products, cosmetics, detergents, etc.). Following a massive and varied use of these products, significant amounts of pollutants can be found at different levels of the water cycle, particularly in urban areas. Healthcare facility discharges, by their nature, are often considered as non-domestic effluent, which can provide significant pollution comparatively to other domestic sources. In a recent paper authored by Alexandre Bergé et al., published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research (doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0470-8), UCT’s mixed-mode anion exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges, CUNAX2 (200 mg/ 3 mL), were employed for the extraction/preconcentration of surfactants in waste water samples.

Even within states where recreational cannabis has not been legalized, government funded crime laboratories are seeing an uptick in seized plant and edible cannabis cases.  While toxicology sections are equipped with the tools needed to extract said samples if tasked with this additional work, drug chemistry units may struggle to treat the various edible forms, tinctures and waxes that appear in their laboratory.