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Facilities and techniques

- facilities within the section MITO (Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology)


Equipment and analytical methods to support research in organic environmental chemistry

To support the research in environmental organic chemistry MITO works with highly sophisticated equipment and state-of-the-art chemical analytical methods with high sensitivity for detection of contaminants in environmental samples as well as samples from consumer products, plants, animals and humans. MITO seeks to identify new potentially problematic organic contaminants and develop new analytical methods for these.

Presently, there are applied analytical methods for a range of chemical groups, including the following: Polychlorinated biphenyles (PCBs), Dioxins, flame retardants, polycyclic aromatic compounds, pesticides, including biocides and rodenticides, perfluorinated compounds, preservatives, plasticizers, phenols, pharmaceuticals etc.

MITO is equipped with a range of analytical instruments such as GC-MS, LC-MS-MS, HPLC and GC. Further MITO has extraction- and clean up equipment such as Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE), soxhlet extraction and gel permeation chromatography (GPC).

MITO holds an accreditation for analysis of PCB’s, brominated flame retardants, PAHs and pesticides

Contact persons

Passive sampling techniques

There is a growing need to measure hazardous substances at very low levels and at inaccessible sites, such as the Arctic.  Passive samplers integrate over longer time periods or reflect a concentration in equilibrium with the surrounding environment. Thus, they have a great potential to assess exposure levels of hazardous substances. Work is ongoing towards more routine use of passive samplers, e.g. in monitoring programs.  The research in the section has mainly focused on passive sampling of hydrophobic contaminants in water, but studies of passive sampling of PCBs in indoor air has been carried out as well.

Contact persons

Pia Lassen

Senior Researcher - Deputy head of department