Designing a contaminated soil sampling strategy for human health risk assessment

Human health risk assessment is a site-based approach used to identify the potential health hazards which are induced by an old site contamination. For a proper evaluation of the daily doses of contaminants to which people will be exposed given the future occupation of the site, both a characterization and a quantification of soil pollution are needed. Such information can be provided by soil sampling. Thus the choice of the location, the number, depth and type of soil samples is very important and ought to follow a well-defined strategy. A review of contaminated site sampling practices in Europe and North America could not identify any completely formalized sampling strategy for human health risk assessment. On the contrary there are several approaches which can be roughly classified into two categories: a systematic sampling scheme over the whole site, on the one hand, and a sampling design driven by an initial knowledge of the contamination sources and fitted to the suspected pollution pattern, on the other. The first approach provides a complete coverage of the site but it may be rather expensive and entail useless sampling. The performance of the second depends on the quality of prior information. Actually both methods can be combined as explained hereafter. In view of the specificity of each site, the requirements of health risk assessment and the time and cost constraints, it seems difficult to work out a typical soil sampling strategy suitable for all sites. However, some recommendations can be made according to the site dimensions, the nature, degree and heterogeneity of contamination, and the (future) use of the site. The scientist should thus rely on a thorough examination of all available information (site history, geology and hydrogeology, soil properties, contaminants behaviour , etc.) to delimit contaminated areas as homogeneous as possible and then distribute the sampling points (e.g.using a sampling grid). They should also take the potential exposure paths into account in order to define the areas and soil strata to be sampled as a priority. Statistical and geostatistical tools can be helpful for formulating a sampling strategy as well as for interpreting the collected data. Received: 7 December 2001 Accepted: 24 February 2002     

固体进样元素分析技术在农业领域的应用

重金属是农产品、农田土壤、肥料、饲料等农业样品中的重要污染物,传统的实验室分析方法需繁琐的前处理,耗时费力,无法满足重金属的快速检测需求。固体进样元素分析技术具有简化样品前处理、便捷、绿色、高效等优势,在农业领域中元素的快速检测分析中具有良好的应用前景。通过对固体进样元素分析技术,包括样品导入技术和电热蒸发、电感加热、激光烧蚀、X射线荧光光谱、激光诱导击穿光谱等固体进样分析系统进行综述,并对这些技术在农业领域中的应用做了进一步的梳理。固体进样分析技术已在农业样品中元素的快速检测、现场监测、风险评估等工作中发挥着举足轻重的作用,相信随着仪器研发、材料科学、机器学习等新兴技术的快速发展,其结构小巧、使用简单、分析迅速等优势将会充分发挥,为农业领域中质量安全监管提供一种更为有效、可靠的快速检测手段。     

Sampling and sampling strategies for environmental analysis

Sampling errors are generally believed to dominate the errors of analytical measurement during the entire environmental data acquisition process. Unfortunately, environmental sampling errors are hardly quantified and documented even though analytical errors are frequently yet improperly reported to the third decimal point in environmental analysis. There is a significant discrepancy in directly applying traditional sampling theories (such as those developed for the binary particle systems) to trace levels of contaminants in complex environmental matrices with various spatial and temporal heterogeneities. The purpose of this critical review is to address several key issues in the development of an optimal sampling strategy with a primary goal of sample representativeness while minimizing the total number of samples and sampling frequencies, hence the cost for sampling and analysis. Several biased and statistically based sampling approaches commonly employed in environmental sampling (e.g. judgmental sampling and haphazard sampling vs. statistically based approaches such as simple random, systematic random, and stratified random sampling) are examined with respect to their pros and cons for the acquisition of scientifically reliable and legally defensible data. The effects of sample size, sample frequency and the use of compositing are addressed to illustrate the strategies for a cost reduction as well as an improved representativeness of sampling from spatially and temporally varied environmental systems. The discussions are accompanied with some recent advances and examples in the formulation of sampling strategies for the chemical or biological analysis of air, surface water, drinking water, groundwater, soil, and hazardous waste sites.     

Development and validation of a new direct sampling method for coarse mono- and mixed waste fractions bound in bales

Sampling of coarse waste materials is considered to be a particularly challenging task and is at the same time the most crucial step in the overall data acquisition process. Despite this fact, research work on new sampling methods or new scientific approaches to sampling has been rather limited over the last decades. This paper focuses on a completely new sampling procedure for coarse two-dimensional materials similar to municipal solid waste or packaging plastics. The developed method is especially suitable for materials with particle sizes >100 mm and is based on the ‘press-and-drill method’ introduced by researchers from Fachhochschule Nordhausen. The basic idea is to sample the material in its compressed form (e.g. as bales) with a drilling tool in order to gain increments. The study presented in this paper shows the results of two extensive test series applying this new sampling technique to a middle-calorific fraction produced from packaging material (mainly plastics, textiles and paper). In parallel, the state-of-the-art approach was also applied on the same materials to gain valuable reference data. Results from both approaches are used for the extensive validation of the new sampling method. The verification of accuracy was realised by doping the material with defined pieces of foil containing molybdenum sulphide (MoS₂) which acted as a tracer in the bale. The results obtained by the new direct bale sampling showed not only good accordance with the actual tracer content in each bale but also with results derived from the state-of-the-art approach. In this study, homogeneously distributed parameters (e.g. loss of ignition) were included just as inhomogeneously distributed elements (i.e. Cu). It is shown that sufficient representativeness for coarse materials (d₉₅ > 300 mm) is obtained despite relatively small sample amounts and without previous comminution of the material.     

Appropriate rather than representative sampling, based on acceptable levels of uncertainty

Appropriate sampling, that includes the estimation of measurement uncertainty, is proposed in preference to representative sampling without estimation of overall measurement quality. To fulfil this purpose the uncertainty estimate must include contribution from all sources, including the primary sampling, sample preparation and chemical analysis. It must also include contributions from systematic errors, such as sampling bias, rather than from random errors alone. Case studies are used to illustrate the feasibility of this approach and to show its advantages for improved reliability of interpretation of the measurements. Measurements with a high level of uncertainty (e.g. 50%) can be shown to be fit for some specified purposes using this approach. Once reliable estimates of the uncertainty are available, then a probabilistic interpretation of results can be made. This allows financial aspects to be considered in deciding upon what constitutes an acceptable level of uncertainty. In many practical situations ”representative” sampling is never fully achieved. This approach recognises this and instead, provides reliable estimates of the uncertainty around the concentration values that imperfect appropriate sampling causes. Received: 28 December 2001 Accepted: 25 April 2002     

A multi-residue method for characterization and determination of atmospheric pesticides measured at two French urban and rural sampling sites

The extensive use of pesticides to protect agricultural crops can result in the transfer of these compounds into the atmosphere and their diffusion towards urban areas. Precise evaluation of the geographic impact of this type of pollution is important environmentally. In this paper, analytical methods for the sampling, characterization, and determination of agricultural pesticides in air were developed; the methods were then applied in the Paris and Champagne regions. Sixteen pesticides belonging to nine chemical families were monitored. Sampling was carried out in urban (Paris) and rural (Aube district) sites, utilizing either a high-volume pump (12.5 m³ h^–1) (urban site) or a low-volume pump (2.3 m³ h^–1) for the rural site. Quartz filters and polyurethane foams (PUF) were used for sampling in all cases. After extracting the samples and concentrating the recovered solutions, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis with UV detection was performed. Identification of the pesticides was confirmed by applying to the HPLC measurements a novel UV-detection procedure based on the normalized absorbance variation with wavelength (Noravawa procedure). The presence of metsulfuron methyl, isoproturon, linuron, deltamethrin (and/or malathion), and chlorophenoxy acids (2,4-D and MCPP) was found at the urban sampling site at levels ranging from about 1 to 1130 ng m^–3 of air, depending on the compound and sampling period. On the rural sampling site residues of isoproturon, deltamethrin (and/or malathion), MCPP, and 2,4-D were generally detected at higher levels (19–5130 ng m^–3) than on the urban site, as expected. The effects of the weather conditions and agricultural activity on the atmospheric concentrations of pesticides are discussed, as are long-range atmospheric transfer processes for these pesticides.     

Estimation of measurement uncertainty by the budget approach for heavy metal content in soils under different land use

A reference database was used for the estimation of the standard uncertainties resulting from sampling, sample preparation, and analysis of soil samples from a target area in Switzerland. This evaluation was based on an extended reference sampling of the Comparative Evaluation of European Methods for Sampling and Sample Preparation of Soils Project. Samples were taken according to the national sampling protocols of 15 European countries and were analyzed for zinc, cadmium, copper, and lead. The combined uncertainty for all laboratories was estimated according to the ISO Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement. It was found that the sampling uncertainty was not larger than the analytical uncertainty if more than ten sample increments were taken. The uncertainty due to variation in sampling depth and sample size reduction was only significant under unfavorable conditions. On the basis of an uncertainty budget the sampling protocols can be optimized and a ranking is possible, aimed at conditions that are fit for the specific purpose.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary Material is available in the online version of this article at     

Detection of VX contamination in soil through solid-phase microextraction sampling and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry of the VX degradation product bis(diisopropylaminoethyl)disulfide

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) sampling and analysis method was developed for bis(diisopropylaminoethyl)disulfide (a degradation product of the nerve agent VX) in soil. A 30-min sampling time with a polydimethylsiloxane-coated fiber and high temperature alkaline hydrolysis allowed detection with 1.0 microg of VX spiked per g of agricultural soil. The method was successfully used in the field with portable GC-MS instrumentation. This method is relatively rapid (less than 1 h), avoids the use of complex preparation steps, and enhances analyst safety through limited use of solvents and decontamination of the soil before sampling.     

Calorimetric seasonal characterization of culture and pasture soils

Isothermal and Differential Scanning Calorimetry is applied to analyze the evolution of soil using its microorganisms and organic matter as bioindicators of soil quality. This study was carried out with two similar soils under different agricultural activities: culture and pasture. Sampling and measurements were performed through 1 year in order to check the sensitivity of common calorimetric indicators of microbial activity and organic matter to the different climatic seasons in the sampling place: spring, summer, fall and winter. Results show that these indicators are sensitive to changes related to climatic conditions but the variability depended also on the nature of the soil: pasture or agricultural land. The results achieved through the present study show that the procedure here proposed could be used on any soil everywhere, providing the determination of the own parameters of soil and zones.     

Using the local elevation method to construct optimized umbrella sampling potentials: Calculation of the relative free energies and interconversion barriers of glucopyranose ring conformers in water

A method is proposed to combine the local elevation (LE) conformational searching and the umbrella sampling (US) conformational sampling approaches into a single local elevation umbrella sampling (LEUS) scheme for (explicit‐solvent) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In this approach, an initial (relatively short) LE build‐up (searching) phase is used to construct an optimized biasing potential within a subspace of conformationally relevant degrees of freedom, that is then used in a (comparatively longer) US sampling phase. This scheme dramatically enhances (in comparison with plain MD) the sampling power of MD simulations, taking advantage of the fact that the preoptimized biasing potential represents a reasonable approximation to the negative of the free energy surface in the considered conformational subspace. The method is applied to the calculation of the relative free energies of β‐D ‐glucopyranose ring conformers in water (within the GROMOS 45A4 force field). Different schemes to assign sampled conformational regions to distinct states are also compared. This approach, which bears some analogies with adaptive umbrella sampling and metadynamics (but within a very distinct implementation), is shown to be: (i) efficient (nearly all the computational effort is invested in the actual sampling phase rather than in searching and equilibration); (ii) robust (the method is only weakly sensitive to the details of the build‐up protocol, even for relatively short build‐up times); (iii) versatile (a LEUS biasing potential database could easily be preoptimized for small molecules and assembled on a fragment basis for larger ones). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2010     

Efficient evaluation of sampling quality of molecular dynamics simulations by clustering of dihedral torsion angles and Sammon mapping

A direct conformational clustering and mapping approach for peptide conformations based on backbone dihedral angles has been developed and applied to compare conformational sampling of Met-enkephalin using two molecular dynamics (MD) methods. Efficient clustering in dihedrals has been achieved by evaluating all combinations resulting from independent clustering of each dihedral angle distribution, thus resolving all conformational substates. In contrast, Cartesian clustering was unable to accurately distinguish between all substates. Projection of clusters on dihedral principal component (PCA) subspaces did not result in efficient separation of highly populated clusters. However, representation in a nonlinear metric by Sammon mapping was able to separate well the 48 highest populated clusters in just two dimensions. In addition, this approach also allowed us to visualize the transition frequencies between clusters efficiently. Significantly, higher transition frequencies between more distinct conformational substates were found for a recently developed biasing-potential replica exchange MD simulation method allowing faster sampling of possible substates compared to conventional MD simulations. Although the number of theoretically possible clusters grows exponentially with peptide length, in practice, the number of clusters is only limited by the sampling size (typically much smaller), and therefore the method is well suited also for large systems. The approach could be useful to rapidly and accurately evaluate conformational sampling during MD simulations, to compare different sampling strategies and eventually to detect kinetic bottlenecks in folding pathways.     

Assessment of mobility of heavy metals in two soil types by use of column leaching experiments and chemometric evaluation of elution curves

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the mobility of heavy metals (HMs) in two types of soils (acidic forest soil and neutral agricultural soil) by leaching with calcium chloride solution in column experiments. The screening properties of neutral agricultural soil towards pollution by heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd) are approximately 10 times higher than those of acid forest soil. The neutral agricultural soil, polluted artificially by one pore volume (PV) of an HMs solution of concentration 200 mg L^?1, can screen the leaching of these metals over several hundreds of years. The higher apparent desorption rate and per cent desorption of HMs (especially Cd) in acid forest soil indicated a higher potential of intensive migration of the metals across the profile and indicated potential risk of Cd pollution for this type of soil. The latest approach of artificial neural networks to describe transport of HMs in soil has been also evaluated. Using a simple three-layer perceptron topology with three hidden neurons, the experimental data could be simulated. The results suggested that the pH of soil is a major factor controlling the retention of the heavy metals in the soils.     

Sampling free energy surfaces as slices by combining umbrella sampling and metadynamics

Metadynamics (MTD) is a very powerful technique to sample high‐dimensional free energy landscapes, and due to its self‐guiding property, the method has been successful in studying complex reactions and conformational changes. MTD sampling is based on filling the free energy basins by biasing potentials and thus for cases with flat, broad, and unbound free energy wells, the computational time to sample them becomes very large. To alleviate this problem, we combine the standard Umbrella Sampling (US) technique with MTD to sample orthogonal collective variables (CVs) in a simultaneous way. Within this scheme, we construct the equilibrium distribution of CVs from biased distributions obtained from independent MTD simulations with umbrella potentials. Reweighting is carried out by a procedure that combines US reweighting and Tiwary–Parrinello MTD reweighting within the Weighted Histogram Analysis Method (WHAM). The approach is ideal for a controlled sampling of a CV in a MTD simulation, making it computationally efficient in sampling flat, broad, and unbound free energy surfaces. This technique also allows for a distributed sampling of a high‐dimensional free energy surface, further increasing the computational efficiency in sampling. We demonstrate the application of this technique in sampling high‐dimensional surface for various chemical reactions using ab initio and QM/MM hybrid molecular dynamics simulations. Further, to carry out MTD bias reweighting for computing forward reaction barriers in ab initio or QM/MM simulations, we propose a computationally affordable approach that does not require recrossing trajectories. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

提高碘量法测定天然气中硫化氢效率的方法

碘量法是测定管道输送天然气中硫化氢的一种经典方法,而管道输送天然气中硫化氢含量较低,按照GB/T11060.1–2010方法测定,取样量较大,取样时间长,影响工作效率。针对此问题,从两方面对碘量法进行改进:减小天然气取样量进行试验,并与国标规定取样量时的实验结果进行比对,确定最佳取样量;增大取样流量进行试验,并与国标规定取样流量时的实验结果进行比对,确定最佳取样流量。对硫化氢质量浓度为7.2~14.3,14.3~28.7 mg/m~3的天然气样品进行试验测定,结果表明,将天然气取样量减少为20 L,取样时间分别由200,100 min缩短为40 min;将天然气取样流量设定为750 m L/min,取样时间分别由200,100 min缩短为133,67 min。减少取样量或者提高取样流量,均能缩短管输天然气的取样时间,提高检测效率。     

Free Energy Calculations using a Swarm‐Enhanced Sampling Molecular Dynamics Approach

Free energy simulations are an established computational tool in modelling chemical change in the condensed phase. However, sampling of kinetically distinct substates remains a challenge to these approaches. As a route to addressing this, we link the methods of thermodynamic integration (TI) and swarm‐enhanced sampling molecular dynamics (sesMD), where simulation replicas interact cooperatively to aid transitions over energy barriers. We illustrate the approach by using alchemical alkane transformations in solution, comparing them with the multiple independent trajectory TI (IT‐TI) method. Free energy changes for transitions computed by using IT‐TI grew increasingly inaccurate as the intramolecular barrier was heightened. By contrast, swarm‐enhanced sampling TI (sesTI) calculations showed clear improvements in sampling efficiency, leading to more accurate computed free energy differences, even in the case of the highest barrier height. The sesTI approach, therefore, has potential in addressing chemical change in systems where conformations exist in slow exchange.     

AAS法测定土壤中铜的新型进样装置

研制了一种新的进样装置,该装置既可常规进样又可以脉冲进样,可用于土壤中铜元素的测定。并对两种进样方法的分析性能进行了对比。     

Advances in passive sampling in environmental studies

Passive sampling is based on the phenomenon of mass transport due to the difference between chemical potentials of analytes in a given environmental compartment and the collection medium inside a dosimeter. The subsequent laboratory procedure (i.e. extraction, identification and determination of analytes) is the same as in the case of classic sampling techniques.Passive sampling techniques are characterized by simplicity with regard to the dosimeter's construction as well as its maintenance. Therefore, they find ever increasing application in the field of environmental research and analytics. When choosing a passive sampling method, one should not forget that some passive samplers require the time-consuming calibration step before being used in the field.Novel solutions and modifications of existing sampler designs have been presented. Practical application of passive dosimetry in environmental analytics, including sampling of water, soil, air and other atypical media are discussed. Some aspects of calibration methods in passive dosimetry are also described. The latest trends in the application of passive sampling are highlighted.     

Measurement of radiocesium in Irish peatland soils

Results are presented for soils taken from twelve peatland sites in Ireland. Two depth horizons, 0–5 and 5–15 cm, were sampled on each site and sampling was carried out in summer and autumn. Deposition of Chernobyl¹³⁷Cs varied between 0.4 and 4.6 kBq m^–2, which is at the lower end of values reported by other authors for Irish agricultural soils. The data showed that the relative percentages of activity and deposition remained internally consistent in each soil horizon for Chernobyl and weapons fallout sources on both sampling occasions: this provided evidence that sampling and analytical procedures were consistent. An apparent reversal in the relative importance of weapons fallout in soils was found when deposition data were compared to the same data presented in activity format, and this same reversal was found for both soil horizons. Different conclusions may erroneously be drawn from data depending on the parameter by which we make measurements. Presentation of results should be carefully considered and depends on the purpose for which a study is intended. A statistically significant change in bulk density of the deeper soil horizon was found between summer and autumn. Changes in bulk density important to bear in mind that in addition to analytical errors, sampling methods can only provide estimations which themselves have inherent sources of error.     

固体分层取样方案的最优化设计

本文首次从理论上探讨了取得量对分层取样误差的影响,提出了总取样量一定时各层的最佳取样量和最小取样方差的计算公式,从而为分层取样的最佳取样方案设计提供了理论依据。     

Calibration of a Multipoint Sampling System Connected with a Photoacoustic Detector

Abstract

Photoacoustic detection of gases in the air phase in combination with a multipoint sampling device transfers about 100 mL of air from each sample location to the next one, causing a considerable disturbance when small systems are sampled. In reactive systems, such as trace gas exchange in soil samples, a correction is required to determine the kinetic behavior of the systems. But this kinetic behavior is required in turn to calculate the correction in a repeated sampling sequence. A model was developed for reaction kinetics (zero-order or first-order) within closed systems and the sample transfer between these systems by a CBISS MK2 multipoint sampling system, connected with a Brüel & Kjær photoacoustic detector. By regression, the reaction kinetics is determined, and by simulation of the system in the absence of sample transfer, corrected data are generated. Comparison of experimental and modeled data revealed that part of the sample is transferred directly two systems further. In addition, a slight memory effect of the detector was revealed. These effects were accounted for in the model. If the correction is not made, biased results are obtained for the reaction kinetics.