Gas Chromatography in Environmental Analysis

The background of active compounds in the environment at the ultratrace level is discussed briefly. It is shown that today we are generally limited to the analysis of a few active compounds in a concentration range which is not low enough to fully understand their impact on environmental pollution. To understand these compounds we must be able to analyze impurities at the 10−10% level. By combining the specificity of enrichment, elution, separation and detection, we can restrict our data to a few single chemical species detected from millions of other compounds. As any success in the substantial improvement of our environment depends on the quality of the information produced, and as each problem can only be solved to the degree that precise information is available, amassing correct environmental analysis is vitally important to the future of mankind.