PROJECTS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND QUALITY-CONTROL OF INORGANIC AND ORGANIC-ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATRICES

Owing to the strong need to improve the quality of measurements for th e monitoring of inorganic and organic compounds in the environment, th e Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) of the Commission of the Europea n Communities has undertaken a series of projects dealing with interla boratory exercises and the production of reference materials certified for of a wide variety of inorganic (major and trace elements) and org anic (chlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) comp ounds in various environmental matrices. This paper provides an overvi ew of the most recent projects in the field of environmental monitorin g, i.e., for water (fresh, estuarine and sea water), plants (aquatic a nd terrestrial), biota and waste.