Sampling and quality assurance and quality control: a guide for scientists investigating the occurrence of microplastics across matrices
Brander SM, Renick VC, Foley MM, Steele C, Woo M, Lusher A, Carr S, Helm P, Box C, Cherniak S, Andrews RC, Rochman CM (2020). Applied Spectroscopy.
What they found
Because microplastics are everywhere, including in lab air, water and equipment, background contamination is a constant risk. This guide sets out quality assurance and control steps (blanks, clean handling, sampling design) for water, sediment, tissue and air samples so results are reproducible across labs.
- What it can't tell you
- Guidance, not new measurements. Recommendations reflect expert judgement as of 2020; nanoplastic methods and chemical-mass techniques have moved on since.
- Funding
- Not checked (full text inaccessible). Europe PMC lists NOAA Marine Debris, the US NSF and the Oregon Agricultural Research Foundation.
- Topics
- Methods
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 32643389)