Government Laboratory

Analytical and Advisory Services Division

Trace Elements Section

About the Section

The Trace Elements Section is established on 2 July 2003 to centralize all human and physical resources for the determinations of trace elements within the Headquarters of the Government Laboratory. The Section mainly provides analytical support to Environmental Chemistry Sections and Food Safety Sections for elemental analysis.

Responsibilities

The Section performs elemental determinations on environmental monitoring programmes, environmental litigations and food contaminations on behalf of the aforesaid Sections within the Headquarters of the Government Laboratory.

Key Personnel

Senior Chemist: Mr. W F Tong (Tel. No.: 2762-3860 E-mail: wftong@govtlab.gov.hk)

Quality Assurance

About 20% of samples are for QC purpose.

The Section has recently participated or participates on a regular basis in the following interlaboratory comparison exercises:

• New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center for Laboratories & Research, Environmental Laboratory Approval Programme.
• Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation T001 Metals in Water Proficiency Programme.
• WHO-GAW Acid Rain Performance Survey
• Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme (FAPAS)

Key Instruments

The following instruments are used routinely by the Section:

• Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS)
• Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES)
• Hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometer
• Cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometer
• Flame atomic absorption spectrometer
• Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer
• Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

Targets and Key Indicators

Please refer to the relevant Environmental Chemistry Sections and Food Safety Sections for details.

- Top -