Automation in the pesticide analytical laboratory

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of samples are routinely analyzed for pesticide residues annually in the United States alone. The result has been an acute shortage of analytical personnel adequately trained in this exacting area (Gunther 1962). One solution which was suggested (Gunther and Ott 1966 a and b) to help alleviate this problem was to automate the major and basic routine residue screening methods to the point where less well-trained personnel can operate the required instrumentation. The available skilled analysts can then be partially freed to devote more of their time to those incisive analytical efforts always associated with aberrant samples and also to the ever-increasing evaluative residue programs required under current legislative restrictions imposed to maintain quality in our air, food, fiber, and water supplies. For example, the problem of establishing realistic values of “acceptable daily intakes” for man for pesticide residues and food additives, often necessitating total diet studies which involve residue investigation of large numbers of samples, has been reviewed by Lu (1973) of the World Health Organization; these values must be established for each presently used and each new pesticide chemical “to protect the health of the consumer and to facilitate international trade” (Lu 1973).