Development of sensitive techniques for rapid screening and analysis of water-borne contaminants

根据科学研究表明对人类和环境健康的负面影响，近年来，水中化学污染物的存在引起了公众的极大关注。尽管通过控制有毒化学物质的排放在改善环境质量方面取得了很大进展，但人们发现，我们的水资源仍在继续掺假，而且可能还在恶化。污染源范围广泛，包括工业废水、生活废水（例如被排出的药品和病原体消毒副产品污染）、农业和城市径流以及大气沉降物。污染物本身种类繁多，包括有毒金属、无机阴离子、有机卤素、种类繁多的极性有机化合物等。极性分析物在化学分析方面是一个特别的挑战，因为它们通常不能用通常的方法进行分析。需要开发敏感的方法来检测和量化这些水性化合物，同时提供快速筛选大量样品的手段，以帮助减少有毒化合物进入地表水。

Based on scientific studies suggesting negative consequences for human and environmental health, the presence of chemical contaminants in water has garnered significant public attention in recent years. Although great strides have been made to improve the quality of the environment through controls on emissions of toxic chemicals, it has been found that adulteration of our water resources is continuing and, likely, worsening. The sources of contamination are wide-ranging, with inputs from industrial effluent, domestic wastewater (contaminated with, for example, excreted pharmaceuticals and byproducts of disinfection for pathogens), agricultural and urban run-off, and atmospheric fall-out. The contaminants themselves are quite diverse, including toxic metals, inorganic anions, organohalogens, numerous and varied polar organic compounds, etc. The polar analytes are a particular challenge with respect to chemical analysis as they are not typically amenable to analysis by the usual approaches. Development of sensitive methods to detect and quantify these water-borne compounds while providing a means for rapid screening of numerous samples is required to help mitigate input of toxic compounds to surface water.