Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

A wide range of organic contaminants originating from agricultural runoffs, industrial and municipal effluents, and atmospheric emissions are released into aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. A thorough knowledge of the fate (persistence and life cycle), transport (movement), exposure, and biological effects (toxicity) of these contaminants is required for the assessment of their ecological risks, and to develop policies to protect ecosystems, biodiversity as well as animal and plant health. Investigating the fate, transport, exposure, and biological effects of organic contaminants necessitates their effective isolation from a variety of environmental samples (e.g., air, soil, water, sediment, and biological samples) prior to their identification and quantification using analytical instruments such as a gas or liquid chromatograph (GC or LC) coupled to a mass spectrometer (MS). A sample preparation platform is the required system used to prepare environmental samples, ensuring that they are suitable for detecting and quantifying targeted organic contaminants effectively. The present multidisciplinary team composed of seven researchers from three different departments at the U. of Québec à Montréal leads major innovative research projects in collaboration with national and international researchers (academia, governments, and NGOs) necessitating the analysis of a wide range of organic contaminants in various environmental samples to document their fate, transport, exposure, and biological effects in wildlife and plants. The present team is therefore fully dependent on the access to a state-of-the-art sample preparation platform to support ongoing and future research programs and projects requiring analysis of several organic contaminants that are of high environmental and health concern in Canada and internationally. However, our now 14-year-old sample preparation platform completely failed in August 2024, and as a result, the present team does not have access anymore to this essential system at our institution at this was the only one available. We therefore urgently request funds from NSERC to purchase a new sample preparation platform. Because of the widespread uses of sample preparation techniques in environmental toxicology and chemistry research, pharmaceutical industry, food safety and public health, HQP will greatly benefit from training on this state-of-the-art platform and will be well sought after in academia and in the public and private sectors.