Sample Transportation and Storage

For the determination of the consumption of drugs and medicaments, urine is more suitable than blood as the material for analysis, as the substances of interest and their metabolites can be determined in urine even after several days, whereas they can often break down in blood within a few hours. 

In the determination of trace elements and heavy metals from urine, the collection vessel should previously be washed with dilute nitric acid followed by distilled water. 

Urine samples are often obtained in a domestic environment (24-h collection period) or, in the case of industrial medicinal investigations, in a working environment, so that location-dependent exogenic contamination can occur. 

To prevent any changes to the sample matrix due to storage and transportation, it is important to let the laboratory have the sample immediately after it has been taken, so that the analytical work can be started. As this is not possible in most cases, the following recommendations should be observed for short-term storage before transportation or storage until analysis  

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Field recovery samples are an important part of the quality control in DFR studies. Field fortifications allow the experimental data to be corrected for losses at all phases of the study from collection through sample transport and storage. Fresh laboratory fortifications monitor losses due to the analytical phase. This section details how the field recovery process was handled in the oxamyl tomato DFR study. 

This Second Edition continues the basic approach of the first with the addition of four chapters. Chapter 1 is an outline of the development of soil chemistry with specific reference to the development of instruments that have been essential to the present understanding of soil chemistry. Chapter 7 is a new chapter dealing with soil sampling, both in the field and in the laboratory, soil water sampling, sample transport, and storage. Chapter 8 discusses direct, modified, and indirect methods of soil analysis. Chapter 15 covers the recent development of hyphenated instrumental methods and their application to soil analysis. 

SOIL AND SOIL SOLUTION SAMPLING, SAMPLE TRANSPORT, AND STORAGE... 

Passive samplers are widely used in monitoring volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in groundwater. Such samplers have the potential to reduce costs of monitoring from the high levels associated with the use of pumps to sample the test wells. Moreover, the risk of loss of volatile analytes during sample transport and storage is substantially reduced once the compounds are accumulated in the sampler sorption phase. 

Sample transport and storage Sample containers Cross-contamination from other samples... 

Boink ABT, Buckley BM, Christiansen TF, Covington AK, Maas A, Mueller-Plathe O, et al. Recommendations on blood sampling, transport and storage for the determination of the substance concentration of ionized calcium. In Maas AHJ, ed. Methodology and clinical apphcations of ion selective electrodes. 

Burnett RW, Covington AK, Fogh-Anderson N, Kuipman WR, Maas AH, MuUer-Plathe, et al. Recommendations on whole blood sampling, transport, and storage for simultaneous determination of pH, blood gases, and electrolytes. J Int Fed Clin Chem 1994 6 115-20. 

They must be robust enough to cope with sampling, transport, and storage conditions that are likely to be encountered. The lids of any container must fit tightly to prevent any loss of sample during transportation and storage if tipped and to prevent any entry of air especially if the sample is susceptible to oxidation. Alternatively the cap must fit securely to avoid sample loss. 

Variability between samples may be due to phytoplankton patchiness which may occur at scales of < 1 m Wangersky, 1973). Heileman and Mohammed (1991) have described subsampling errors associated with the settling of particles in water samplers (Gardner, 1977). Artefacts may also arise from sample transport and storage (Herve and Heinonen, 1984). The recommendations given in Chapter 1 should be foDowed. 

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