Highlights of the 56th Annual ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry

Spectroscopy Magazine was well represented at the 56th Annual ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry, held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado, from June 1–5, 2008. On the first full day of the conference, frequent Spectroscopy author Joseph A. Caruso, of the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio) chaired the session entitled “Challenges in Elemental Analysis Using Mass Spectrometry." During this session, Caruso’s colleague Scott E. Afton presented their work, "An Investigation of Xenon as a Universal ICP-MS Collision Cell Gas via Sulfur Optimization with Application to Bottled Water Contaminants." Bottled water safety has been a hot-button issue in the news in recent times, which made Caruso’s presentation both timely and topical.

During Tuesday’s session on "Pharmaceutical Drugs As Environmental Pollutants," Claude Mallet of Waters Corporation (Milford, Massachusetts) discussed "Analysis of Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water by On-Line SPE/LC–MS-MS," which he also wrote about in Spectroscopy's May 2008 Current Trends in Mass Spectrometry supplement. This issue is becoming increasingly important as EPA guidelines become stricter and stricter in the wake of several cases of contamination.

In addition, Lab TV presenter David Sparkman (University of the Pacific, Stockton, California) and his colleagues had three posters at the conference. On Tuesday, conference attendees were able to view "Utility of Reactions in the Source of a Helium Metastable-Beam Open-Air-Ion-Source Mass Spectrometer." On Wednesday, Sparkman’s contributions consisted of "Endocrine Disrupters Adsorbed on Macro and Micro Plastic Debris in the Ocean," and "Methods for Quantitative Measurements Using a Helium Metastable-Beam Open-Air-Ion-Source Mass Spectrometer."