Heavy metal contamination in food, particularly chocolate and protein powders, poses serious health risks. This blog highlights environmental sources, health impacts, and the need for accurate testing. Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) are vital for reliable analysis, regulatory compliance, and consumer trust, ensuring food safety through validated, reproducible quality control methods.

In pharmaceutical R&D, artificial gastric and intestinal fluids are essential for simulating human digestive conditions during in-vitro dissolution testing. These fluids, replicating physiological pH and enzyme content, help assess how drugs dissolve and absorb—crucial for efficacy and safety. Pickering Laboratories offers USP-compliant formulations, aiding accurate quality control. Such testing is especially vital for patients with altered GI physiology, like those post-bariatric surgery, which can impact drug absorption, including oral contraceptives. ESSLAB supports these efforts by partnering with Pickering to enhance drug development accuracy and ensure effective medication performance under varied physiological conditions.

Turbidity, caused by suspended particles, affects water quality and photometric analysis by scattering light. ESSLAB provides MACHEREY-NAGEL’s NANOCOLOR® spectrophotometers, which automatically detect and correct turbidity interference for accurate results. Methods like filtration, dilution, and correction factors help minimize errors. NANOCOLOR® instruments offer fast, reliable testing, compact design, and ease of use, making them ideal for water quality assessment.

Recent studies highlight the dangers of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) migrating from plastics and rubber in consumer goods and PPE into human skin. Firefighters face high PAH exposure due to extreme conditions, while everyday products like toys, sportswear, and wearables pose similar risks. Advancements in-vitro testing, including artificial sweat and skin surface film liquid (SSFL), provides more accurate assessments of PAH absorption. These methods improve product safety, guide regulations, and protect public health. ESSLAB and Pickering Laboratories support PAH migration research with advanced testing tools, ensuring compliance with evolving UK and European safety standards.

This E-Insight addresses the potentially harmful effects that everyday products could have on our health when in contact with bodily fluids. From clothing to jewellery, the furniture we sit on and the technology we use. The leader in this field is Pickering Laboratories. Their work has led to the creation of specialised formulations of sweat, saliva, urine, gastric juices, earwax, and more, which can be used to test these products. 

ESSLAB is actively assisting environmental agencies and water utility companies across the UK and Europe in addressing the key issues identified by the recent UK and EU Water Framework Directive. This review provides a summary and analysis of the latest academic and professional research on the impact of various environmental pollutants. It highlights the significant global health implications, discussing how these pollutants enter the environment and the human body.