IMW Initial Phase Report 



The two Analytical Centers selected for the Initial Phase were the International Atomic Energy 

 Agency Marine Environment Laboratory (MEL), Principality of Monaco, and the Geochemical and 

 Environmental Research Group (GERG), Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, U.S.A. 



Data interpretation of the combined IMW dataset (found in Appendix A) has been 

 undertaken by the Project Secretariat with substantial input from the Analytical Center analysts and 

 several Host-Country scientists. All data are being made available to participating Host-Country 

 scientists by a copy of this report. 



Host-Country scientists with requisite analytical expertise, and who wished to do so, 

 retained tissue samples collected by the Field Scientist for in-country analysis. Results of field 

 sample analysis by the individual national laboratories have been retained for individual 

 comparison with data from the EMW Analytical Centers. An interlaboratory comparison exercise 

 was conducted by the Project Secretariat and the results of this work is summarized in Appendix 

 C. Host-country scientists were asked to determine production and use data from available sources 

 in their respective countries and this information is summarized in Appendix D. 



Quality Assurance and Quality Control 



Trace analyses of organic contaminants in this program can be difficult because of the low 

 concentrations of many of the target analytes and the several different bivalve species or different 

 physiologic states of the same species collected over a wide geographic range. The original plan for 

 the Initial Implementation Phase included a Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QA/QC) 

 interlaboratory comparison prior to the phase of field sample analyses. The plan had to be revised 

 to accommodate funding and scheduling constraints. However, a good series of QA/QC analyses 

 have been completed. An extensive scientific literature on good Quality Control/Quality Assurance 

 practices can be found elsewhere, but several are cited here (Farrington et al 1983; Taylor, 1985, 

 1985a; UNEP, 1990; UNESCO, 1990; Villeneuve and Mee, 1989, 1990) 



There were two principle components to the QA/QC program in the Initial Implementation 

 Phase. The first component was the routine QA/QC internal to each Analytical Center (IAEA 

 Marine Environmental Laboratory [MEL], and Texas A&M University Geochemical and 

 Environmental Research Group [GERG]). The second component was coordinated by the Project 

 Secretariat and consisted of two sub-components: 1) The analysis of two IMW Intercomparison 

 samples and one Working Standard Reference Material (SRM), and 2) the analysis of field 

 replicate samples for several stations. The results of the QA/QC component coordinated by the 

 Project Secretariat are presented in this section of the report. 



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