Introduction to the EU-network on trace element speciation: preparing for the 21(st) century

The main objective of the EU-network is to bring together scientists with a background in analytical chemistry interested in speciation method develop ment with potential users from industry and representatives from legislativ e bodies. The network started on 1/10/1997 for a duration of 2 years. A ser ies of meetings are being organised to debate all the important questions f or collecting information on environmental, food and occupational health as pects of speciation and to define possible future projects. The findings an d conclusions will be summarised as a series of general papers that will be published in the open literature, recapitulating the essential information gathered to date, outlining the state of the art for each topic and recomm ending legislative actions. A first meeting was held in Uberlingen, Germany on 5-6 December 1997. The representatives from industry explained their in terest in the network and the participants from the academic and national i nstitutes gave a state-of-the-art presentation of their research. Out of th is, a program was compiled for the following meeting in Segovia from 16 to 20 March 1998. The topics dealt with were: organotin compounds in the envir onmental session; the speciation and bioavailability of trace clement speci es (Cr, Fe, Se), the quality of the data and new legislation in the food se ssion; and identification of inhaled particles and the search for bioindica tors for exposure to Ni and Pt in the occupational health/hygiene session. In each session about half of the participants came from industry. The dele gates agreed on a list of priorities in speciation analysis. A www-page has been created: hhtp://www. speciation 21.plymouth.ac.uk. Everybody interest ed in adding information to the page is requested to mail this to Ipitts@pl ymouth.ac.uk.