Detection of ppb levels of arsenic in beers and wines

ACCEPTED for Presentation at the American Chemical Society 250th National Meeting in Boston August 16-20, 2015 on the Analytical Chemistry Division Program Track ABSTRACT SYMPOSIUM NAME: Advances in Analytical Separations, Organized by Jennifer Maclachlan

ABSTRACT SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM AREA NAME: [ANYL] Division of Analytical Chemistry

CONTROL ID: 2260931

PRESENTATION TYPE: Oral

TITLE: Detection of ppb levels of arsenic in beers and wines

AUTHORS (FIRST NAME, LAST NAME): John N. Driscoll1, Jennifer L. Maclachlan1

INSTITUTIONS (ALL): 1. PID Analyzers, LLC, Sandwich, MA, United States.

ABSTRACT BODY: Abstract: Government regulations have resulted in the discontinuation of many  arsenic compounds in the USA. Still, there may be leftover supplies of arsenical pesticides in farms  or in the fields that continue to represent residual risk. In fact, we have investigated a series of  California wines using hydride generation/gas chromatography/photoionization detection  (HG/GC/PID) for the analysis of trivalent and pentavalent arsenic compounds. We have found  that the majority of wine samples contain low (10 ppb) levels of trivalent arsenic but high  (hundreds of ppb) of pentavalent arsenic (presumably from the pesticides).  Although pentavalent arsenic is less toxic than trivalent arsenic, it is still a serious problem with  these high levels. We also found some beer samples with high levels of pentavalent arsenic.  We will discuss this new method for arsenic detection (HG/GC/PID) along with the results  for beer and wines.