SCIENCE|natural and applied sciences|physical sciences|chemistry · SCIENCE|natural and applied sciences|physical sciences
- éilliú Reference Faomhadh an téarma seo mar chuid de Thionscadal Lex
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- éilliúchán Reference Faomhadh an téarma seo mar chuid de Thionscadal Lex
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- contamination | laboratory contamination
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- Definition inadvertent addition of target analytes to samples during the sample collection, transportation and analysis process Reference "Genium Group Inc. > Environmental > Interpretation of Inorganic Data by Roy-Keith Smith > Sample Chapter - Chapter 9 - Laboratory Contamination, http://www.genium.com/pdf/iidlab.pdf [4.2.2010]"
- Comment Just like the adage that the best place to catch a disease is in the hospital, the best place to find an environmental pollutant is in an analytical laboratory. Contamination manifests itself in the detected presence of target analytes in the sample that are in greater amounts than they are in the native source of the sample. In 1994 EPA announced that all the ambient monitoring data that had been collected for over 30 years in more or less pristine sites in an ongoing effort to define the natural background levels of heavy metals was unreliable due to contamination in sample collection and analysis. Oceanographers have discovered in the last 10 years that historically determined ambient ocean metals levels are heavily biased due to the presence of the metal hull of the ship used for the research. Although a majority of the attention has been directed toward metals, contamination issues are not limited to the metals in inorganic analysis.