56 
LABORATORY BIOASSAYS: CHEMICAL ANALYSES TO FIND LOW LEVEL POLLUTANTS 
HAVE IMPROVED DRAMATICALLY- FOR EXAMPLE, IN 1976, WE MEASURED LEVELS 
OF THE TOXIC ORGANIC POLLUTANTS AND PESTICIDES USING GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY 
AND THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY: QUR DETECTION LIMITS WERE BETWEEN 100 
AND 500 PARTS PER BILLION- TODAY, WITH IMPROVED GAS CHROMATOGRAPH 
COLUMNS AND WITH MASS SPECTROSCOPY WITH MICROPROCESSORS, OUR DETECTION 
LIMITS HAVE IMPROVED TO LESS THAN 1 PART PER BILLION FOR SOME PURGEABLE 
ORGANICS, TO BETWEEN 6 AND 7 PARTS PER BILLION FOR OTHER ORGANICS. WE 
HAVE ALSO CUT OUR PROCESSING TIME FROM DAYS TO HOURS, AS WE CAN NOW 
ANALYZE FOR SEVERAL COMPOUNDS AT THE SAME TIME- SIMILARLY, THE USE OF 
OPTICAL EMISSIONS SPECTROSCOPY VIA INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA HAS 
IMPROVED THE PRECISION AND REDUCED THE COSTS OF METALS ANALYSIS- 
CONCURRENT WITH IMPROVED LABORATORY TECHNIQUES, EPA HAS DEVELOPED 
NEW TECHNIQUES FOR IN SITU BIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF MARINE POLLUTION- 
WE NOW HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO PLACE SEVERAL KINDS OF TEST ANIMALS AT 
DUMPSITES FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME AND DETECT SUB-CHRONIC IMPACTS 
OF CERTAIN POLLUTANTS SUCH AS HEAVY METALS AND SYNTHETIC ORGANIC 
COMPOUNDS- WE ARE NOW IN A POSITION TO REDUCE SOME OF THE 
UNCERTAINTIES OF OCEAN DISPOSAL BY UTILIZING THESE EVOLVING TECHNIQUES 
TO STUDY IN CLOSELY CONTROLLED AND MONITORED SITUATIONS THE IMPACTS OF 
WASTE DISPOSAL- 
OcEAN INCINERATION 
ONE ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENT IN THE DISPOSAL OF SOME OF OUR MORE 
TOXIC WASTES HAS BEEN THE SUCCESSFUL USE OF OCEAN INCINERATION: AN 
