Product: POCIS and its Deployment
Our other device, referred to as POCIS (Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler) is used to monitor hydrophilic contaminants which could be potentially endocrine disrupting or acutely toxic. These compounds include pesticides, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, steroids, hormones, antibiotics, personal care products, etc. These compounds are entering water and ecosystems on a global scale and have been traced to many chronic abnormalities.
A single POCIS disk
The Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) is composed of two sheets of microporous (0.1µm pore size) polyethersulfone membrane encasing a solid phase sorbent (Oasis HLB) which retains sampled chemicals. The Oasis HLB is a universal solid-phase extraction sorbent widely used for sampling a large range of hydrophilic to lipophilic organic chemicals from water. Extracts from the POCIS are commonly analyzed by the following techniques: GC, GC/MS, HPLC, and HPLC/MS. Extracts have also been screened by a variety of bio-indicator tests such as the Yeast Estrogen Screen, MCF-7 estrogenicity screen and other receptor-based assays.
The high water solubility of polar organic chemicals (POCs) makes their extraction and detection difficult using standard sampling and analytical techniques. POCIS provides reproducible method for the concentration of POCs in the parts-per-trillion to parts-per-quadrillion range. The POCIS enables estimation of the aqueous exposure of aquatic organism to dissolved POCs and permits determination of their time-weighted average concentration in water over extended periods.
Stainless steel holder containing three POCIS
Deployment Options
The deployment holder for the POCIS (Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler) has been designed to fit into the SPMD canisters. If the large canister is employed, it can simultaneously accommodate both SPMDs and POCIS.
Small
Description: Holds one POCIS holder on which one to three POCIS can be mounted.
Dimensions: 15 cm high x 16 cm wide
Large
Description: Holds one or two POCIS holder(s) (each mounts one to three POCIS for up to a total of six); or holds one POCIS (which mounts one to three POCIS) and up to three holders which uses standard length SPMDs.
Dimension: 30 cm high x 16 cm wide
Well Device
Description: Holds six rectangular POCIS samplers ( the equivalent of three circular POCIS samplers).
Additional Considerations
POCIS technology, covering manufacture and assembly, is the subject of US Government patent (#6,478,961 B2) that is licensed to Environmental Sampling Technologies, Inc. The patent does not cover the extraction processing of the samples and EST will supply SOPs for those who wish to do their own extraction.
In additional to our POCIS product, EST Lab also offers a wide range of services. Please continue by visiting our Services page.