In early 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a ban on most uses of methylene chloride³.

Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Volatile Organic Compounds, methylene chloride

If you work in a drinking water lab, you know there can be specific pain points to drinking water analysis. Here at Teledyne LABS, we design, manufacture, and distribute products that help make this analysis easier for our customers. Five of these pain points are:

Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds, drinking water, P&T, Purge and Trap

Late last year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will be prioritizing five toxic chemicals for risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act. During this process, if the EPA designates these chemicals as High Priority Substances, they will undergo an extensive comprehensive study. These studies will be crucial to helping protect people from toxic exposure.

Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds, P&T, Purge and Trap

In this last installment of our volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis troubleshooting series, the benchmark test will be covered. This benchmark test is available in the Teledyne Tekmar TekLink software tools menu. The tool allows for full electromechanical testing, including valving, heaters, vial handling systems, liquid delivery system, inputs and outputs.

Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Volatile Organic Compounds, Purge and Trap

This is the third in our Troubleshooting series for VOC Analysis. 

• Part one is linked here, VOC Analysis Troubleshooting Part 1: How to Begin Troubleshooting
• Part two is linked here, Troubleshooting Part 2: No or low analyte response and carryover

Part three will discuss elusion issues and moisture control for VOC analysis.

Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Volatile Organic Compounds, P&T, Purge and Trap, Moisture Control

A 57-acre site along the Mohawk River near Schenectady, N.Y., is the future home of a new casino, hotels, apartments and shopping centers. Renderings of the project include elegant glass buildings and plush green lawns. Unfortunately, the site’s history of manufacturing train parts and turbine engines dating back to the 1800s has brought the construction project to a halt. The site is now in the middle of a multi-million dollar cleanup to remove a number of harmful substances, including arsenic, mercury, lead, petroleum byproducts and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In Niskayuna, N.Y., a landfill on GE Global Research’s 525-acre campus contains more than 112 tons of hazardous waste, including VOCs. From the 1940s to the 1970s, metals, ash residue and VOCs were dumped in the landfill. State environmental agencies are recommending monitoring and excavating the site to prevent any further contamination.

Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds

Using Chromatography to analyze Art and Bed Bugs

Artists use eggs, glue and vegetable oils in their paints. Bed Bugs have three volatile compounds in their feces that have been combined to create a lure that makes them easier to catch; two completely different topics, and not exactly things that you read every day. They are however important to art conservationists and scientists, and we wouldn’t know about either if it weren’t for modern analytical techniques, including gas chromatography.

Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds

Within the Uintah Basin of Utah there are 15 evaporation pond farms that manage liquid waste.  Recently, one of the facilities in Grand County, Utah, which receives wastewater from oil and gas mining in Colorado, was found to be operating without air-quality permits for the past six years. Since April 2008, the facility has released “tons of toxic chemicals” into the air. The company, Danish Flats Environmental Services, had also provided faulty data that did not accurately report the effectiveness of emission-control equipment on site. An analysis conducted by the states Division of Air Quality found that the site was a “major emission source for hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds.” The company was subsequently fined $50,000 for its violations.

Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds, wastewater

Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Sample Preparation, Volatile Organic Compounds, drinking water, chromatography, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Analytical Instrumentation, Concentrator, Autosampler, Analyzer

Automated sample preparation is built upon making instruments easier to use, faster, and more efficient. More recent features to purge and trap systems like mass flow controllers and variable volume standard addition, give more method flexibility than legacy products. The 27 mL syringe on our Atomx VOC sample prep system allows for dilution of high level samples as well as automated methanol extractions.

Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, GRO, Gasoline Range Organics, Sample Preparation, Volatile Organic Compounds