(Kelso, Washington; November 10, 2010) - Columbia Analytical Services is pleased to announce its implementation of heavy metals testing that follows new recommendations released by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Columbia Analytical’s Pharmaceutical Division, a registered analytical laboratory providing current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) compliant testing, abides by newly released instrumental methods guidelines for the detection of elemental impurities by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).

The USP recently proposed toxicological limits for elemental impurities to produce reliable data at detection levels that easily meet the elemental impurity limits. Experts at Columbia Analytical have extensive experience analyzing metals in a wide variety of matrices. Instrumental methods provided by Columbia Analytical accurately detect if metals meet or exceed those limits.

Columbia Analytical will be exhibiting at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting, which will take place November 14-18, 2010, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Morial Convention Center, booth #2605.

“We are thrilled to join the thousands of scientists converging at the AAPS Annual Meeting this year, sharing their various perspectives and ideas, all with the goal in mind to improve overall health through advancing pharmaceutical sciences,” stated Jeff Grindstaff, Columbia Analytical laboratory director. “We are excited to showcase our capabilities, especially our wide-spread expertise in the detection of impurities in heavy metals.”

Columbia Analytical provides pharmaceutical testing and presents sound, accurate and reliable data, coupled with excellent customer service. In addition to its heavy metals testing, Columbia Analytical’s comprehensive range of capabilities includes monograph testing, method development and validation, engineering studies, process validation and stability testing.

About Columbia Analytical Services, Pharmaceutical Division
Columbia Analytical Services, Inc., Pharmaceutical Division is a registered contract testing laboratory providing cGMP-compliant testing to the raw material suppliers, CMOs, and product developers/sponsors of the pharmaceutical industry. To ensure regulatory compliance, Columbia Analytical is FDA inspected and registered, and DEA licensed. Columbia Analytical professional scientists have extensive experience in analytical chemistry and routinely provide method development and validation for pharmaceutical testing. For more information about Columbia Analytical Pharmaceutical Division, visit www.caspharma.com.

Columbia Analytical Services announces their analysis of the B₁, B₂ and G₁, G₂ aflatoxins via liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy/mass spectroscopy (LC/MS/MS).

Aflatoxins are potent natural carcinogens produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus or Aspergillus parasiticus. These fungi are known to grow on nuts, spices, milk, oilseed cereals and other agricultural products as well as in water damaged carpets. Aflatoxins have also been found in medicinal herbs contaminated by fungi. Aflatoxins have been classified as group 1 carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).The European Commission have set 4 μg/Kg limits for maximum total aflatoxin content in products for direct human consumption.

“Traditionally quantization of aflatoxins have been performed using thin layer chromatography, or more recently, liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC/FD),” said Dr. Ewan Sinclair, Scientist for Columbia Analytical. “However, LC/MS/MS provides greater sensitivity and selectivity necessary for trace analysis of aflatoxins in complex food matrices.”

Columbia Analytical has developed special prep procedures for complex food matrices followed by LC/MS/MS for the analysis of these selected aflatoxins. Using this prep and analytical approach Columbia Analytical is able to achieve method reporting limits (MRL) of 2 μg/kg for aflatoxins B₁ and G₁, and 1 μg/kg for aflatoxins B₂ and G₂.

For more information on aflatoxins and LC/MS/MS technology contact Columbia Analytical online at http://www.caslab.com/Aflatoxin-Testing/ or call 360-577-7222.

Jacksonville, Fla. - Columbia Analytical has hired four new employees at their Jacksonville, Florida laboratory in effort to increase their level of customer service.

Karenza Fedele joined Columbia Analytical as the new Quality Assurance (QA) Manager. Fedele has more than 11 years of work experience with Pace Analytical/ELAB in Ormond Beach. She will be responsible for the overall implementation and management of the laboratory QA program.

Janet Jones was hired as the primary Lachat Analyst in the wet chemistry department. Jones joined Columbia Analytical after working as a scientist with Kroll Laboratory Specialists in Louisiana.

James Nicholson accepted supervisor responsibilities for the volatiles section. Nicholson will manage instrument retrofit and method development efforts for RSK-175. He joins Columbia Analytical with more than 11 years experience as an analyst and laboratory volatiles supervisor.

The volatiles section was formerly lead by Jerry Allen. He has been promoted into a full-time project management role.

Cheslea Lovejoy was hired as an instrument analyst (GC/MS, GC/ECD and GC/FID), and has a role in method development, specifically for low level 8082 analysis (GC/ECD) and PCB congener analysis in conjunction with PAH analysis (GC/MS SIM). She joins Columbia Analytical after five years experience as an analyst.

For more information on Columbia Analytical - Jacksonville, please contact Andre Rachmaninoff at 904.739.2277 or visit the company’s 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.

- - -
Learn more about Chinese drywall testing…