Air quality methods development

A credible and defensible means of sampling and analyzing air quality and the substances associated with air pollution are critical to ensuring effective compliance to regulations, guidelines and voluntary initiatives established to protect air quality and reduce the effects of air pollution on Canadians.

A major area of air quality research and science in Environment Canada focuses on this objective - that is, the development, improvement, and validation of sampling and analytical tools, methods and techniques for the measurement of chemical contaminants in the atmosphere.

The development of new or revised reference methods or guidance documents supports government environmental regulations and associated guidelines. Priorities are driven by government regulatory and program needs and response to policy- and decision-makers. For example, Reference Methods are developed and published in response to the needs of the regulatory process for the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.

Research is also conducted to measure and/or monitor substances released into the environment that are identified as priority substances of concern under Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan and/or the Canada’s Action Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollution. At times, this research may lead to the development of improved analytical methods, processes, or technologies to determine the risk or impact on the environment and to support the delivery of science-based risk assessment and management strategies for environmental regulatory decision-making.

Often the scientists develop special techniques to meet the demands for high sensitivity and reproducibility in challenging situations such as in non-urban or remote sites and intensive field campaigns. Much of this work is done in collaboration with academic institutions and international scientists, as part of national and international programs.

Innovative tools and methods being explored through the analytical methods development activities aim to make existing sampling and testing procedures more efficient and cost-effective and improve the effectiveness for assessing compliance by private industry. This work often involves making improvements to sample preparation, sample cleanup and analyte identification, speciation, and quantification.

In addition to providing a standard which can be incorporated into regulations or used as a guideline or voluntary compliance measure by private industry, the development of air quality methods, tools and techniques by Environment Canada’s air quality scientists also contributes to international standards or methods and participates in round-robin analytical testing programs with prestigious agencies including the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Tools and techniques are regularly audited by the national accreditation program managed by the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA). Some scientific staff working on methods development within Environment Canada are also CALA auditors and routinely audit other laboratories across Canada. For more information concerning Environment Canada’s air quality laboratory accreditation program and methods, refer to Quality Management Systems.

Examples of some of this work include:

A new method was developed to analyze the organic fraction of ambient particulate matter; specifically, to obtain quantitative data on a wide variety of semi-volatile organic compounds comprising the organic fraction of ambient PM_2.5 (particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller). This method, successfully used in a study to quantitatively identify 60 target compounds from urban ambient particulate matter in Golden, British Columbia, uses direct thermal desorption, cryofocusing, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

Environment Canada’s air quality scientists and engineers pioneered a method of using polyurethane foam (PUF) disk passive air samplers to sample persistent organic pollutants (POPs) - the monitoring program developed for this initiative became the only global-scale program for air reported to the first Global Monitoring Plan of the Stockholm Convention on POPs (for more information see Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling network). The PUF-disk sampler approach has been adopted by numerous countries and regions around the world as a cost effective means for generating new information on POPs. Pilot studies are currently underway to assess a modified PUF disk sampler comprising sorbent-impregnated PUF disks to capture the more polar and volatile priority chemicals such as airborne polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).

Reference methods are developed to support regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. At times, these methods are developed when no standardized method previously existed, such as determining ethylene oxide control efficiency from catalytic oxidizers, used in hospital sterilization operations.

Scientists participate in developing Canada-Wide Standards to promote consistent measurement, assessment, and management of contaminants, such as the Canada-Wide Standard for Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Soil

Guidance documents on analytical methods are produced to enable the Canadian private industry carry out their analyses more effectively, efficiently, and with greater consistency, such as the Environmental Performance Agreement with the Refractory Ceramic Fibre Industry in Canada do, among other targets, establish and maintain an air monitoring program for refractory ceramic fibre emissions.

Environment Canada has a history of successful collaboration with the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology. For example, the reference concentrations for dioxins and furans listed in the certificate of analysis for Standard Reference Material 1649, used worldwide by the atmospheric science community, were provided by the Analysis and Air Quality Section within Environment Canada’s Air Quality Research Division. Ongoing collaboration includes work on the characterization, development, and or adoption of standard reference materials for the identification and quantitative analysis of several compound classes such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons in diesel fuel emissions and urban dust.

Scientists within Environment Canada’s Air Quality Research Division laboratories in Ottawa and Downsview develop innovative analytical methods using techniques such as capillary electrophoresis to provide rapid and cost-effective monitoring of airborne pollutants. For example, in collaboration with Germany’s Institute for Ecological Chemistry, Environment Canada’s scientists developed an analytical method for identifying water-soluble polar organics in air and vehicular emitted particulate , using a capillary electrophoresis - electrospray ionization quadrupole spectrometry method.