Category Archives: Conference

Come One, Come All to NEMC 2019!

By Rebecca Smith and David Mazawa

This year the annual National Environmental Monitoring Conference (NEMC) heads south to Jacksonville, Florida, where chemists and environmental regulators from around the country will gather from August 5-9, 2019.  The August weather and the technical program will both be heating up as David and Rebecca check out the latest research in environmental monitoring and methodology. 

Please stop by our booth to chat with us about the latest post-column developments and newest product testing solutions.  Or, even better, come find us at the New Technology Showcase on Tuesday, August 6th from 3:00 – 5:00 pm!  David will be joining other instrument manufacturers to discuss the latest innovations in analytical instrumentation. 

Finally, we’re excited to be included in this year’s selection of drinking water poster presentations!  David and Rebecca will gladly discuss our poster with you when we see you at the show.  For reference, it is titled: HIGHLY SENSITIVE ANALYSIS OF CHROMIUM (VI) IN DRINKING WATER BY ION CHROMATOGRAPHY (IC) WITH POST-COLUMN DERIVATIZATION AND UV/VIS DETECTION.

Pickering Laboratories presents new products at PITTCON 2017

Chicago, McCormick Convention center, March 5-9. Booth # 2625

Pickering Laboratories will be exhibiting at the 4-day event and meeting with customers and distributors to highlight new applications and products from the Product Testing Solutions and Post-Column Derivatization product lines.

New Post-Column Applications:

  • Theanine
  • Glyphosate in Foods
  • Carbamates in Foods
  • Formaldehyde
  • Amino Acids in Pharmacopoeia 8.0

Our Product Testing Solutions include artificial Body fluids manufactured testing made to official industry protocols:

  • Artificial Perspiration
  • Artificial Saliva
  • Artificial Urine
  • Artificial Sebum 
  • Artificial Cerumen

Also we are announcing our new Artificial Sebum and Sweat Emulsion product!

Twice-a-day raffle to win a Fitbit Flex – come to Booth 2625 and get into the game!

 

AOAC International Conference

aoac-2016The AOAC International Conference caters to chemists and analytical professionals from around the world. This year the meeting is in Dallas, Texas from September 16-24, 2016. Pickering Laboratories will be showing our latest applications and products at our AOAC exhibition booth #308. We are also a corporate sponsor and a contributor to several committee meetings throughout the year. Our commitment to AOAC is reflected in the nay products and methods we offer that follow AOAC methods and guidelines.

This year, Maria Ofitserova will be presenting her work on the analysis of Theanine in tea, dietary ingredients and supplements by HPLC with post-column derivatization. This method was developed in response to a call for methods issued by the Stakeholder Panel on Dietary Supplements (SPDS). The post-column Theanine method has undergone Single Laboratory Validation (SLV) and has met the standard method performance requirements set up by the SPDS. In August 2016, Pickering’s Theanine method was evaluated by an Expert Review Panel (ERP) and approved as an AOAC First Action Official Method! The method and the results of single laboratory validation are in print and will be published in the Journal of AOAC International later this fall. If you are attending the show, don’t miss our related talk on Monday morning September 19th at 8:00am!

Following the trend of more testing for glyphosate, we are presenting a poster on Glyphosate Analysis in Foods. The Pickering post-column method was used to expand our application for Glyphosate Analysis in Soy Beans, Corn and Sunflower Seeds to also include oats, wheat flour, eggs and other food matrices. Improved sample clean-up procedures allow for preparing samples for injection in half the time. See our expanded application in our poster presentation on Tuesday, September 20th.

Glyphosate is one of our classic applications, and as discussed in this quarter’s NACRW article, it has become very popular again due to the recent discovery of glyphosate in finished food products and urine of consumers. Find our previous newsletter article on the subject here: FDA Announces New Glyphosate Testing in Food.

Maria, Mike and David hope to see you at the upcoming AOAC International Conference in Dallas. Please stop by and say hello, or wave to Maria if you see her at her presentation Monday or at one of the expert panels she belongs to!

Unusual Matrices, Interesting Conferences

By Saji George

Herbal Products

Unusual-MatricesConsumer use of herbal supplements for wellness has been increasing in recent years, according to the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA).  Their website is the self-proclaimed voice of the herbal and botanical products industry, and an excellent resource for laboratories interested in providing testing services to this growing market sector.  At the Supply Side West show, they held numerous committee meetings (Analytical Laboratories, Personal Care, Sports Nutrition and Cannabis to name a few) where solutions to various industry issues are discussed http://www.ahpa.org/AboutUs/Committees.aspx.

The show was held this March at the Anaheim Convention Center, and I attended on behalf of Pickering Laboratories.  Both the exhibit show and committee meetings were very informative.  This is a good place to taste-test the concoctions that are displayed at local stores but you always hesitate to buy because the components fail to excite the imagination. Consider it the test drive of the products that are so good for you. While there, I also explored new frontiers in herbs and botanicals, and listened in on the industry’s expanding conversation on pesticides, mycotoxins and adulterant.  If you are interested in more information about analytical testing in herbal matrices, please visit www.pickeringlabs.com/library/method-abstracts-2/#food to learn more.

Textiles

aatccThe International Conference of the American Association of Textiles Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) was held at Williamsburg, Virginia in April.  This show has three interest groups: chemical applications, concept-to-consumer and materials. The chemical applications group focuses on applying chemicals to textiles to add additional function (such as adding wrinkle free, anti-microbial and anti-mosquito, or flame retardant properties).  Concept-to-consumer focuses on the path from design to retail (such as balancing between design and quality, using conductive thread for sewing, or digital textile printing). Finally, the materials group focuses on latest innovations in fibers (such as solar textiles, smart textiles or novel synthetic turf infill).  To learn more about smart textiles, try this link http://www.rle.mit.edu/fabric/ or you could find those and other videos on YouTube.

So, why did Pickering Laboratories send a chemist to AATCC when we have no direct involvement in the textile industry?  Our product testing solutions are used every day in testing these textile innovations!  A popular artificial perspiration we offer is the AATCC Method 15 formulation, which is used for testing the colorfastness of fabric to perspiration or to a combination of light and perspiration.

For this and other formulations, visit www.pickeringtestsolutions.com and view our complete product testing catalog, or just explore the many different types of consumer products and tests that get performed everyday with artificial perspiration on products you purchase as a consumer!

NEMC and NACRW Conference

Pickering Laboratories exhibited at the National Environmental Measurement Symposium  in Chicago July 13 – 17. This meeting combines NEMC (National Environmental Measurement Conference) with NELAC (National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Committee). Billed as the largest conference on environmental monitoring in North America.

Rebecca Smith presented our Poster “Analysis of Glufosinate and Glyphosate in Water by HPLC with Post-Column Derivatization”. With the rise of Glyphosate resistance Glufosinate is expanding in usage by agriculture and testing requirements.

On exhibit were Pickering’s  environmental and contaminates testing products and methods:

  • Carbamate, Glyphosate, AMPA, Glufonsinate
  • Nitrite and Nitrate
  • Chromium (VI)
  • Biogenic Amines
  • Formaldehyde
  • Aminoglycosides Antibiotics
  • Polyether Antibiotics
  • Paralytic Shellfish Toxins

The  NACRW 2015 (North American Pesticide Residue Workshop) in St. Pete’s beach,is also an environmental testing conference organized by the non-profit FLAG an off shoot of Florida Department of Agriculture. We have been attending this show since the 80’s when George Fong created the Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop. As the show has grown the subject matter has widened to include food and supplements analysis and other areas of growth.

Mike Gottschalk and Sareeta Nerkar attended this year and presented the Poster “Analysis of Antioxidants in Food and Dietary supplements using HPLC with Post-Column derivatization.” Sareeta was a new volunteer at the registration desk for much of the show.