The presence of heavy metals such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in toys poses a health risk. These toys and accessories must be evaluated for safety with respect to their content using defined test methods. This note presents an example of high-sensitivity ICP analysis conducted quickly and at low cost.
John Philip Walters, Ph.D. (1938-2026), was an analytical chemist who spent 17 years researching the physics of spark-discharge emission spectroscopy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before moving to St. Olaf College in 1982, where he became best known for pioneering a role-playing undergraduate laboratory model that had students take on professional roles to mirror real analytical-chemistry work. His 1991 three-part series on the approach in Analytical Chemistry earned him the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry's J. Calvin Giddings Award in 1993, and he continued extending his understand-the-system teaching philosophy into computer-controlled instrumentation well into his later career.
Top content published this week include a new article on bioprocess monitoring, a new “Chemometrics in Spectroscopy” column, and an overview of the latest advancements in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).