Environmental Chemistry A Section
About the Section
This Section carries out chemical analysis and provides advisory service, in relation to organic pollutants, to client departments in support of the monitoring of air quality, water quality and waste management as well as the enforcement of environmental regulations on the control of release of organic pollutants. The Section also offers technical services to other government departments, for example, the source identification of spilled oils in Hong Kong waters for the Marine Department under the Shipping and Port Control Ordinance.
Responsibilities
This Section helps to implement the following Ordinances under the Laws of Hong Kong:
- Air Pollution Control Ordinance
- Water Pollution Control Ordinance
- Waste Disposal Ordinance
- Shipping and Port Control Ordinance
- Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance
- Hazardous Chemicals Control Ordinance
This Section also provides analytical support to other government departments in relation to the investigation of air quality, water quality and waste management. In particular, it provides analytical support to the Environmental Protection Department for its environmental monitoring programmes on organic pollutants release.
Determination of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in air by GC-MS
Quality Assurance
Typical percentage of tests on routine samples for quality control purposes : 28%
The Section has participated regularly in the following proficiency tests:
- Italian Intercalibration Dioxins Circuit (InterCinD)
- Wageningen Evaluating Programs for Analytical Laboratories
- International Sediment Exchange for Tests on Organic Contaminants (SETOC) - Environmental Resource Associates (ERA) Proficiency Testing Study
- American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) re:source's Proficiency Sample Program (PSP)
- Institute for Interlaboratory Studies (iis) REN/Food Ethanol
Key Instruments
The following instruments are used routinely by the Section:
- High resolution gas chromatographs with double focusing high resolution mass spectrometers
- Gas chromatographs with various detectors
- Gas chromatographs with mass spectrometers and cryogenic concentrators
- High performance liquid chromatographs with various detectors
- Gas chromatograph with tandem mass spectrometer (GC/MS/MS)
- High performance liquid chromatographs with tandem mass spectrometers (LC/MS/MS)
HRGC-HRMS
Targets and Key Indicators
For the targets and key indicators for the advisory and investigative services of environmental samples, please click here for details.