The high cost and slow turnaround times typically associated with the
measurement of regulated pollutants clearly indicates a need for envir
onmental screening and monitoring methods which are fast, portable, an
d cost-effective. To meet this need, a variety of held analytical meth
ods have been introduced, a number of which are commercially available
or under development. Because of their unique characteristics, howeve
r, technologies such as biosensors might be exploited to fill specific
niche applications in the environmental monitoring area. Although the
potential environmental market is large, there are a number of techni
cal and commercial obstacles which must be addressed before biosensors
or other field analytical technologies have a significant impact on e
nvironmental monitoring. Some of these obstacles include the large num
ber of potential pollutants and broad range of their chemical classes;
the broad range and complexity of environmental matrices; the variety
of possible cocontaminants; the wide dynamic range of pollutant conce
ntrations; lack of well-established data quality expectations by poten
tial users; lack of sufficient markets for specific applications; and
regulatory acceptance requirements. This paper will focus primarily on
challenges and possible opportunities for the development of biosenso
rs for environmental monitoring applications.