An overview on organic contaminants, focusing on monitoring of a few chlorinated organic pollutants, through immission studies

The studies reported here show that it is possible within the framework of good laboratory practice to produce data sets accurate enough to establish time trends and assess geographical distribution of organochlorine contaminants in the environment. The importance of thorough extraction and purification techniques with the use of surrogate standards as a control of the different steps in the analytical procedure is highlighted, and a few pitfalls pointed out. The feasibility of improving analytical quality through well-designed intercalibration exercises is also discussed.