Quality control in speciation studies for environmental monitoring

An important and entirely new chapter, Chapter 6, Quality Control in Speciation Studies for Environmental Monitoring by the international authority on the topic, Ph. Quevauviller of the Standards Measurement and Testing Programme of the European Commission, has been added. 

Quality control in speciation studies for environmental monitoring... 

As already stressed, these techniques involve many analytical steps such as extraction, derivatization, separation and detection, which should be performed in such a way that decay of the unstable species does not occur. However, the control of the quality of measurements is often hampered by the lack of suitable reference materials for speciation analyses. Research is hence directed towards the development of new (if possible simple) analytical methods, the production of reference materials, and the monitoring of chemical species for various purposes (environmental risk assessment, toxicity studies, biogeochemical cycles of trace elements, etc.). 

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