ANALYST, JULY 1993, VOL. 118 93N Conference Reports The 44th Pittsburg. Conference and Exhibition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, March 8-12, Atlanta, GA, USA Some of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s staff and some of this year’s 30000 visitors to the Pittsburg Conference and Exhibition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectro- scopy, (PittCon) were stranded in Atlanta, Georgia, after a freak Winter storm roared up the Eastern US coast. PittCon had just wound down when the storm hit and brought with it up to 12 feet of snow in some areas, gale force winds, closing most East-coast airports and making roads impassable. At the opening ceremony six days earlier, Georgia Governor, Zell Miller had invited PittCon visitors to stay and enjoy the many attractions of Atlanta and to ‘spend money, we need it!’ Many attendees had little choice but to buckle down and stay tuned to ‘The Weather Channel’ for further news of the ‘Blizzard of ’93’ and its destructive progress.PittCon is the largest exhibition and technical programme of its kind in the world attracting over 1000 exhibitors displaying over 5 miles of the latest analytical instrumentation and over 1800 oral presentations in the form of symposia, poster sessions, short courses and mini-meetings. It is much more than an exhibition with lectures, it is a scientific phenomenon! A technological showcase of the fastest, most accurate and state-of-the-art instruments that science has to offer coupled with a fully comprehensive programme of symposia dealing with everything from the infinitessimality of precision measurement through to the more general topics of interest to Everyman’s chemist.PittCon has grown in size over its 44 year history leaving only a handful of US cities with facilities large enough to handle the influx. For the next few years, only Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans are slated. It started out as a very small gathering of about a dozen exhibits and presented papers hosted by its current sponsors, the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh and the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburg and was held in none other than downtown Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Since 1967 PittCon has ceased to be Pittsburg based but its premise to benefit science education still endures. In recent years, PittCon has donated half a million US dollars annually, the entire profit of the show.This year’s technical programme lacked lustre in its scope. Sorely missed were the Plenary lectures of previous years, always popular and well attended, and those topics that would normally arouse discussion and debate were few. Conferees looking for content though could not have been disappointed as it was there in abundance and some speakers were courageous in their efforts to amuse and impart a sense of fun and humour in their presentations. Gary Hieftje’s (Indiana University) presentation on ‘Spec- trometric measurements and instrumentation on the horizon’ was a particularly entertaining and enlightening talk on those indicators already in place that might determine future directions. It was included under the symposium title ‘Promis- ing Analytical Techniques on the Horizon’ and was dedicated to the memory of Professor L.B. (Buck) Rogers who pioneered developments in a wide range of analytical tech- niques including electrochemistry, separation techniques and spectroscopy. Hieftje suggested future paths that spectro- metric measurements and instrumentation might follow. Particularly that they will be more biologically oriented, use a greater range of dimensions, make better use of spatial resolution, have increased signal processing capabilities and useful diode lasers. The importance of data visualization will progress, for example, with ICP imaging to show three spatial dimensions for true 3D imaging. The impact of nanotechno- logy points to greater development of molecular level instrumentation and advancements being made now in semiconductor lasers suggest that these types of techniques may become routine and practical in the not too distant future.Hieftje also deduced that spectrometric developments cou- pled with the advancement of new technologies will mean that analytical instruments will be capable of examining a sample as it is being analysed, of tuning their own operating characteristics in order to optimize the sample characteriza- tion and therefore produce accurate analytical results during the initial sample examination. This year’s Maurice F. Hasler award was presented to Professor R. S. Houk, Senior Chemist at the Ames Labora- tory, US Department of Energy, for his work on the fundamental studies and application of plasma ion sources for mass spectrometry.His work has made contributions to ICPs, time-of-flight and ion-trap mass spectrometry. His award address entitled ‘Now for something completely different; the scientific impact of TCP-MS’ was certainly extraordinary in its presentation and very entertaining. Houk was able to show, with the aid of slides, that his career followed a similar path to that of Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars! For example, he and Napoleon both began their careers with long hair! Environmental science, geochemistry and the nuclear A few of the many guests at the RSC reception at PittCon ’9394N ANALYST, JULY 1993, VOL. 118 The RSC stand at PittCon ’93 and semiconductor industries now make widespread use of the high sensitivity of ICP-MS but Houk feels there are several areas in which TCP-MS is underutilized.For example, stable isotope tracing of minerals in nutrition, particularly zinc and elemental speciation by ICP-MS using a nebulizer. Quality control and IS0 9000 preparedness is of current concern to all manufacturers and laboratories. A series of quality mini-meetings were held in order to answer some of these concerns. The symposium ‘Comparability and Traceabi- lity: An Aid to International Trade’ organized by Bernard King, UK Government Analyst and Deputy Director of the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, sct out to consider the crucial role that valid analytical measurements play in aiding and promoting international trade. Richard Worswick, UK Government Chemist, presented the European scene.The single trading area of Europe now reprcsents 40% of the world’s trade and 30% of the world’s production. The harmonization of standards and the establishment of reliable systems for testing and certification of products is of utmost importance to free trade within Europe and to exports world- wide. Worswick briefly described the organizations that have been set up to establish the mutual recognition and compara- bility of standards, namely the European Organization for Testing and Certification which was established in 1990 to promote voluntary mutual recognition agreements, The Commission of the European Communities through the EC measurements and testing programme which organizes and helps to fund projects needed to solve Community-wide measurement problems, The Western European Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation which was formed to harmonize the requirements for laboratory accreditation based on IS0 Guide 25 and EURACHEM which promotes international agreement and collaboration on issues which affect the quality of measurements in chemical analysis.The president of the Analytical Division of the RSC, Ernie Newman, presented the advantages of laboratory accredita- tion in the UK, the pitfalls that can bc encountered during the accreditation process and the benefits to laboratory personnel in terms of confidence and to the laboratory in increased business once accreditation is achieved. His talk was entitled, ‘The Advantages of Accreditation: a Laboratory Manager’s View’.Meanwhile, the madding crowds were being courted in the exhibition halls with the most impressively packaged techno- logy and slick advertising slogans. The driving force behind most of the latest technology continues to rely heavily on advancements and miniaturization of electronics which trans- lates into faster analysis times and greater flexibility to switch from one analytical technique to another. Developments in computer hardware and software and how these interact have made great strides in data handling and data visualization. Instrument component manufacturers too are having a greater influence on the final product as are those companies involved in sample preparation technology. Microwave heating of samples for example has come a long way in the last ten years from being experimental to a routine, automated method.Also, for some time now, the traditional laboratory instru- ment manufacturers have been busy making their systems more suitable to harsher environments; taking them from the laboratories into industry for process and on-line monitoring and that trend still continues although the laboratory instru- ment still reigns supreme. The Royal Society of Chemistry’s function at PittCon is three-fold: as an exhibitor, promoting its books, journals and databases produced by Information Services; as a host, of an evening reception given each year to thank those US chemists who purchase, contribute to and referee for the Society’s publications; lastly, PittCon provides the RSC with editorial material, potential ideas and authors for books and journals and advertising and gives the marketing personnel the opportunity to come face to face with their customers.Next year, PittCon will be held in Chicago, Illinois, at the end of February and is being billed as the ‘Greatest Science Show Ever’. Whether its greatness will be a measure in linear feet of exhibition space or specific gravity of precipitation remains to be seen! Andrea Bedson PittCon Mini-report Symposium on the lmmunoanalysis of Food Safety This symposium on the whole was very interesting and of particular interest to those of limited exposure to immuno- assay procedures as judged by the questions asked. Richard Durst set the scene on the concepts of immunoassays followed by Jeanette Van Emon and Mary Trucksess who described how the technique has been used in environmental and food monitoring agencies.Finally Rosalyn Y alow discussed some aspects of over- sensitivity of assays. Richard Durst of Cornell University chaired the symposium and gave the first lecture on the immunological concepts and assay techniques. The lecture was targeted at people with limited immunoassay knowledge. The historical background and development of immunoassays were discussed starting with the original work of Berson and Yalow. Durst then went on to discuss the different immunoassay formats and labelling procedures together with the terminology normally associated with them. Jeanette Van Emon of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) described how immunoassays had been implemented into EPA monitoring programmes.She stressed the importance of the development of simple immunoassay test kits for pesticides ( e . g . , parathion and polychlorinated biphenyls) for use by individuals not trained in analytical methods. Such kits have been used by personnel in the United States army to assess the suitability of drinking water in streams. She also presented data on the correlation of analyses between the immunoassay based methods and GC- MS for the monitoring of pesticides and herbicides. The overall correlation was about 0.92. Mary Trucksess from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) focused on the simplicity, speed andANALYST, JULY 1993, VOL. 118 9SN considerable cost advantages of immunochemical methods in food analysis compared with other methods.She also des- cribed the different types of toxins present in food, their source, their effect on humans and immunoassays that have been developed to monitor them both (qualitative and quantitative). A. P. F. Turner from the Cranfield Institute of Technology continued the theme of immunoassays in food analysis. He described numerous technologies used to measure or enumer- ate micro-organisms, e.g. , impedance and mass and refractive index biosensors. He also discussed the advantages of using disposable dipsticks as sensors in food analysis. The final lecture was presented by the distinguished Nobel Prize winner Rosalyn Yalow entitled ‘The Problems with Oversensitivity’. Dr. Yalow described the work she carried out with Berson in the late 1950s which led to the development of radioimmunoassays (RIA). She talked about the sensitivity achieved by her group in the early years, typically 1 x 1 x 1O-I2 mol 1-l concentrations of peptide hormones and compared it with the sensitivity obtained today. She stated that it was possible to measure picogram amounts of chemicals in the presence of billion-fold higher amounts of other substances and then posed the question whether it was wise to develop and use such assays. The question was answered by stating the ‘Delaney clause’ of 1959, which prohibits the presence of any food additive at any dose level that produces cancer in any animal even at the maximum tolerated dose. Dr. Yalow concluded the lecture by stating the need for develop- ing very sensitive assays if the ‘Delaney clause’ is to be adhered to. Derek Palmer Loughborough University of Technology