Kelso, Wash. - Columbia Analytical Services, Inc., an environmental laboratory network headquartered in Kelso, Washington, announces the addition of three technical sales consultants.

Michael Fifield joined Columbia Analytical as the North Eastern Technical Sales Consultant. Fifield holds a B.S. in Chemistry and a master’s in Environmental Engineering Science as well as an MBA in Management. His previous experience includes Laboratory Services Manager at both Montgomery-Watson Harza in Albany, NY and Blasland, Bouck & Lee, Inc in East Syracuse, NY. Fifield has also worked as a Project Scientist and Quality Assurance Manager.

Gary Grammon joined as the Mountain West Technical Sales Consultant. Grammon comes to Columbia Analytical with over fourteen years of analytical laboratory service, sales and management experience, in addition to five years of experience as a Chemist and Project Manager. He holds a B.S. in Biology, and has worked in Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Utah.

Eileen Snyder joined as the Mid-Atlantic Technical Sales Consultant. Snyder brings over 20 years experience managing Federal, State and Commercial consulting projects in the MidAtlantic area. She also brings several years experience with the USEPA Superfund Contract Laboratory Program, HamptonClarke-Veritech Laboratory, and TestAmerica Laboratories, including laboratory sales and technical, regulatory and client services. Snyder holds a B.A. in Biology/Chemistry and an M.A. in Environmental Policy.

“With over 64 years of combined experience in the analytical field, this addition to our sales team is exactly what we need for our clients,” stated Joe Wiegel, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We are excited to expand our services with this knowledgeable group.”

Columbia Analytical Services, Inc., an employee-owned company founded in 1986, provides a wide variety of analytical laboratory services to engineering consulting firms and industrial clients in the aerospace, automotive, engineering, government, mining, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, transportation, utilities, and waste management industries.

For more information about Columbia Analytical visit their website at www.caslab.com.

KELSO, Wash. – Columbia Analytical Services, Inc. announced today that four of its laboratories have met the requirements of the Department of Defense (DoD) Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) and each have been awarded a certificate of accreditation.

The recently accredited laboratories are located in Houston, Texas, Simi Valley, Calif., Rochester, N.Y., and Kelso, Wash. Columbia Analytical’s Houston facility is dedicated to high resolution analyses of analytes such as dioxin, furans and PCB congeners and the Simi Valley laboratory specializes in the analysis of ambient and indoor air pollution, stationary source emissions, process gas, and industrial hygiene samples. The Rochester facility, a full service laboratory, also offers air analyses and other specialized testing like that for perchlorate by LC/MS. The Kelso laboratory became DoD-ELAP accredited in November 2009 and specializes in non-routine, complex low-level analyses requiring a high degree of technical expertise.

The full scope of accreditation, including the list of analytes to which these accreditations apply, may be found on Columbia Analytical’s DoD ELAP webpage.

Columbia Analytical is an employee-owned, full-service environmental analytical laboratory testing network established in 1986 and headquartered in Kelso, Washington. Their expertise encompasses air, water, dioxin, biological, pharmaceutical, solid and hazardous waste analyses.

For more information contact Columbia Analytical at 360-577-7222 or visit their website at www.caslab.com.

Simi Valley, Calif. — A low cost testing option is now available from Columbia Analytical for detecting elemental sulfur (S8) in bulk drywall. The testing focuses on orthorhombic cyclooctasulfur (elemental sulfur: S8), a unique marker compound found only in drywall which causes corrosion. The test costs approximately $100 per drywall sample, depending on your project.

Columbia Analytical’s proven method for elemental sulfur uses gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC/ECD) and allows for rapid turnaround of sample results. The GC/ECD analytical technique offers comparable sensitivity to the GC/MS method also offered by Columbia Analytical, but at a substantially lower cost.

The low cost GC/ECD analysis allows clients to screen a large volume of drywall samples quickly for S8. Because drywall used in home construction can be from mixed sources, submission of multiple samples from one suspect home may be done to reduce the risk of false negative results. In addition, confirmatory analysis of drywall for S8 by GC/MS is still available and may be performed on the same sample as the GC/ECD analysis.

Roughly 5g (approximately 2”x2”) of bulk drywall material is all that is required for this new GC/ECD analysis. Results are reported in units of mg/kg. A result higher than 10 mg/kg is typically indicative of corrosive drywall, making it easy to identify “bad drywall.”

Columbia Analytical’s Research & Development team began laboratory analysis on suspect drywall in spring 2008. They have since analyzed several hundred drywall samples from homeowners, home builders and developers, environmental consultants/industrial hygienists, government agencies and contractors, as well as, domestic and foreign drywall producers as part of their method development.

Columbia Analytical Services, Inc. is an employee-owned, full-service environmental analytical laboratory testing network established in 1986 and headquartered in Kelso, Washington. Their expertise encompasses air, water, dioxin, biological, pharmaceutical, solid and hazardous waste analyses.

For more information on the laboratory analysis of problem drywall, contact Alyson Fortune at 978.501.2735 or visit Columbia Analytical’s website at www.caslab.com.

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