The agenda and speaker-line up has now been confirmed for the upcoming UK workshop – Passive Sampling for Emerging Pollutants Using Chemcatcher®, which will take place from 10:00 to 15:30 on 17 October at  Jurys Inn, East Midlands Airport, Derby, DE74 2SH.

This event will include an educational workshop on passive sampling for emerging pollutants using Chemcatcher®, along with a buffet lunch and a chance to discuss your questions and applications with a panel of expert users. A key focus will be on monitoring pesticides in catchments used for drinking water abstraction. It is free to attend  for water resources managers, but you must register here to reserve your seat.

Speakers and Agenda

The workshop brings together one of the original developers of Chemcatcher® – passive sampling expert Graham Mills – with the current global licence holder – T.E. Laboratories (TelLab), an innovative SME, bringing the water-quality monitoring market solutions, addressing the limitations of conventional spot sampling.

Graham Mills, a Professor of Chemistry at Portsmouth University, has been at the forefront of passive sampling research for the past two decades, with projects spanning from UK catchments to the Fukushima nuclear reactor zone in Japan and Gauteng Province in South Africa.

Over the past three years, TelLab has developed Chemcatcher® sampling systems and training for regulators, researchers and water resource managers. TelLab’s Sandra Lacey and John McGrath are currently working with the Northern Ireland water utility, NI Water, on a project to target raw water improvements, using Chemcatcher® to measure MCPA in catchments.

Two of our other speakers have worked with another two utilities – South West Water and Southern Water Services – using Chemcatcher® to understand more about the source of pesticides in water abstraction catchments, to better target and evaluate catchment management plans and raw water improvement projects.

Ian Townsend, currently with Westcountry Rivers Trust, worked with South West Water for 25 years, during which time he played a prominent role in developing Chemcatcher® passive sampling procedures to monitor acid herbicides and metaldehyde in surface waters.

Meanwhile Adam Taylor, a PhD researcher at University of Portsmouth, is using Chemcatcher® as part of his research, in collaboration with Southern Water Service, to improve understanding on the fate of polar pesticides from catchment to tap.

The day will wrap up with a presentation from Kees Booji, founder and passive sampling scientist with PaSoc. Having spent over 30 years as a scientist with the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ), in 2016, Kees founded PaSoc to develop mechanistic models and processes to facilitate passive sampler use in real-world applications.

Discussion and Q&A with expert panel

The programme allows for discussion and time to have your questions answered by our panel of Chemcatcher® expert users. If you are interested in passive sampling and/or your organisation is concerned with the source and fate of pesticides or other organic and inorganic water pollutants in aquatic environments, attendance at this workshop is a must.

Compared with traditional spot sampling, passive sampling with Chemcatcher® is an extremely cost-effective means of understanding what is happening in a catchment or aquatic environment. It is capable of detecting contaminants at very low levels, capturing transient and episodic events and providing accurate, time-weighted average concentrations.

For more about Chemcatcher®, visit our website at www.chemcatcher.ie