TABLE OF CONTENTS The mass spectrometer is the most widely used detector to analyse the effects of natural and man-made substances on the environment. Social pressures as well as the need for ecological sustainability have necessitated that changes to our environment are monitored with some precision. The Earth's growing population has placed increased demands on the planet's resources and there is now a greater appreciation than ever before of the affect of man-made pollutants and wastes on the environment and their impact on climate change. The compounds studied by mass spectrometry include heavy metals, man-made pesticides, components of industrial waste and their by-products, disinfecting agents, explosives, and those excreted or obtained from naturally occurring algae, toxins and microorganisms. These substances are often present at trace levels within complex mixtures and can only be studied using a mass spectrometer.
Although trace concentrations of some metals such as iron and zinc obtained from certain foods are essential to our well-being, others such as lead and mercury have long been known to cause serious adverse effects to human health. Exposure to lead in paints, petrol and other industrial waste, for example, has long been associated with mental illness and even paralysis. Lead has four natural isotopes 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb and 208Pb of which the latter three are produced by radioactive decay of isotopes of uranium and thallium.
Thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS) is a common technique applied to...
