Envirologix: Putting Science to the Test
Environmental Testing
Immunoassay test kits are ideally suited for testing environmental samples - in soil, water or plants - when speed, simplicity, sensitivity and low cost are important criteria. Immunoassays are appropriate when specific chemicals, or families of chemicals, are known or suspect and the objective is to determine their presence, absence, or quantity contained within the sample.By using immunoassay kits for environmental testing, large numbers of samples can be screened quickly and cost effectively, substantially increasing the number of samples feasible within a specific program or budget by limiting the use of high-cost GC or HPLC to site characterization and confirmatory testing, as desired.
Typical applications include:
- Source Water Protection
- Drinking Water Monitoring
- Point Source Testing
- Effluent Monitoring
- Run-off Assessment and Monitoring
- Pesticide Run-off
- Source Water Protection
Monitor water quality in sources feeding into public or private water supplies in order to divert contaminated inflows. Identify at-risk sources to trace back to origin of the contamination.
Monitor quality in beverage and food processing water supplies.
- Drinking Water Monitoring
Screen quality of finished drinking water, after filtration, chlorination, etc. to confirm adherence to relevant standards. Permits more frequent and extensive testing, with conventional chromatographic analysis limited to requisite regulatory testing for documentation purposes.
- Point Source Testing
Quickly and economically screen suspected points of infiltration. Confirm with limited numbers of HPLC or GC tests if necessary.
- Effluent Monitoring
Use downstream of industrial applications to monitor and document efficacy of effluent cleanup.
- Run-off Assessment and Monitoring
Test and document the impact of overspray or drift on adjacent watercourses. Test effectiveness of bordering buffer zones.
- Pesticide Run-off
Each year, some $8 billion in pest control chemicals are applied to agricultural land in the United States alone. Factoring in industrial and home/garden uses, the USEPA estimated that $11.3 billion was spent on pesticides in the US in 1995, and $37.7 billion worldwide. Those figures translated to 1.2 billion metric tons of active ingredient applied in the United States, and 5.7 billion tons applied worldwide. Farm use accounted for 79% of the total (farm, industrial and home/garden) use of conventional pesticides. 1.4 million of the 1.9 million farms and 70 million of the 95 million households in the United States used pest control chemicals in 1995. The numbers are updated periodically.
Under the US Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, as amended in 1986 and 1996, public drinking water suppliers are required to test their water for contaminants once each quarter. Many utilities test their water supplies for certain contaminants on a daily basis or more frequently. Yet it is now well known that drinking water contamination is not uniform. There are periods, at least in part related to seasonal applications of agricultural and home/garden pesticides, when runoff into surface water and seepage into groundwater raise residue levels above the federal Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) or Lifetime Health Advisory (LHA) levels.
A 1996 report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed water samples taken in 29 Mid-West cities during the heaviest run-off months, May through August, in 1995. Atrazine, a herbicide acknowledged by EPA as the most widely used conventional pesticide in US agricultural crop production, was found to some degree in 28 of the 29 cities tested; in 13 of the 29 cities, atrazine levels exceeded the MCL at least once during the sample period. In 9 of the cities, more than half the samples exceeded either the atrazine MCL or the cyanazine LHA.
While there is heated debate about how representative many studies are, and about the health implications of various levels of pesticide residues, public awareness and concern are undoubtedly increasing.
EnviroLogix pesticide detection kits are specifically designed to detect and quantify many of the principle pesticides at or below US federal and international standards, to inform the debate with consistent, reliable and economical test results. They are used by the full spectrum of interested parties -- regulators, water suppliers, government agencies, commercial labs and watchdog groups alike.
Click here for detailed information on the EnviroLogix Pesticide Residue Test Kits
- Source Water Protection