Quality assessment of INAA data for small-sized environmental reference samples.

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was applied for the accurate and precise determination of minor and trace elements in small-sized aliquants (1 to 2 mg) of two certified reference materials (CRM), NIES No. 8 and NIST 1632c. Four laboratories used either comparative- or k0-INAA, or both, and repeated the analysis more than ten times for each CRM. Based on z-scores and zeta scores of analytical data, QA/QC in analyzing such small scale of the two reference samples was assessed, revealing that there was a clear difference in the analytical ability among participating laboratories. It was concluded that the two CRM samples on the mg scale can be used as reference samples in INAA of a similarly small-scaled sample, at least for the 16-18 elements examined.

Urban air quality in the Asian region.

Over the past decade, member states of the Regional Co-operation Agreement (RCA), an intergovernmental agreement for the East Asia and Pacific region under the auspices of the IAEA with the assistance of international organizations and financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have started to set in place policies and legislation for air pollution abatement. To support planning and evaluate the effectiveness of control programs, data are needed that characterizes urban air quality. The focus of this measurement program describe in this report is on size segregated particulate air pollution. Such airborne particulate matter can have a significant impact on human health and urban visibility. These data provide the input to receptor models that may permit the mitigation of these impacts by identification and quantitative apportionment of the particle sources. The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the measurements of concentrations and composition of particulate air pollution in two size fractions across the participating countries. For many of the large cities in this region, the measured particulate matter concentrations are greater than air quality standards or guidelines that have been adopted in developed countries.