PLANNING AND CERTIFICATION OF VIEW MULTIELEMENTAL REFERENCE MATERIALSFOR RESEARCH IN ANTARCTICA

The adoption of the principles of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and t he implementation of the ensuing procedures for quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) of analytical determinations are nowadays de emed essential to the achievement of sound, credible and comparable ex perimental information. This is certainly also applicable to research projects currently being carried out in the antarctic continent, in pa rticular as regards investigations on global change phenomena. Worldwi de investments made so far in this field do require in fact that relia bility of data be optimized so as to allow for a harmonized assessment of ongoing trends. In this context the Italian National Programme for Research in Antarctica has recently launched a project for the prepar ation of new multielemental certified reference materials (CRMs) to be used for QC of analyses performed on environmentally significant mate rials. The suitability of CRMs to verify the accuracy of experimental measurements acknowledgedly depends, among others, on the degree of si milarity of their matrix composition and analyte levels to those expec ted for real samples. From this standpoint three CRMs are planned, nam ely: i) marine sediment certified for Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, HE, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn and Zn; ii) ocean water certified for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, H g, Mn, Ni and Pb; iii) krill certified for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn and Zn. Regarding the first two matrices, amounts of ca. 1 00 kg and ca. 1001, respectively, have been collected during the IX (1 993-1994) antarctic expedition, while krill was taken in the course of the X (1994-1995) campaign. The pretreatment of sediment has been acc omplished in terms of homogenization, stabilization and characterizati on of the preliminary ground mass. Approximately 500 bottles, each con taining 75 g of material are now ready for distribution to interested laboratories involved in chemical measurements of antarctic matrices, whereas ocean water and krill will follow at a later stage. Finally, d epending on circumstances, also the certification of organochlorine co mpounds in the same materials will be attempted.