Rebecca Smith and David Mazawa hopped on a quick flight down to John Wayne Airport earlier this month, but they weren’t heading to Disneyland! Pickering Laboratories, Inc. was proud to sponsor and exhibit at the 2016 Environmental Measurement Symposium, which is the combined meeting of the Forum on Environmental Accreditation and the National Environmental Monitoring Conference (NEMC). This year’s meeting was held at the Hyatt Regency in Orange County, CA, a short five minute drive from the happiest place on earth. Not that we took the time to ride the Matterhorn… We were hard at work, of course!
When not enjoying conversations with customers and attendees at our booth, we attended many enlightening talks which covered all ranges of topics from medical marijuana to metals speciation… Additionally, the focus this year on Citizen Science was particularly engaging. Rebecca learned that 15% of people living in the U.S. are drinking unregulated water – private wells are much more prevalent than she previously thought! And one speaker in particular was even able to directly tie in Pokemon Go!
Rebecca and David presented a poster on Glyphosate Analysis in Soy Beans, Corn and Sunflower Seeds which had been a big hit at the North American Chemical Residue Workshop in Florida. They found, however, that the booth raffle for a Kindle Oasis was a much bigger draw than the poster presentation! Attendees had three days to enter their business cards for the raffle, and during lunch on Wednesday we had our fabulous booth neighbor Bridget Wallace at XOS draw the big winner…
The winner of our Kindle Oasis raffle was Houri Mandjikian from LA Department of Water and Power. Congratulations Houri! She was able to pick up her new Kindle Oasis at the booth during our sponsored afternoon break on Wednesday. Thank you to Houri and all of our participants in the raffle.
So, with NEMC 2016 wrapped up, you’re probably wondering what we’re up to next?!
Rebecca will be heading to St. Louis next month to participate in the ACIL Annual Meeting. She’s looking forward to seeing some of you there… and getting a chance to watch the St. Louis Cardinals on their home field! (Her grandfather is a huge Cardinals fan from his childhood.)
David is looking ahead to AOAC International 2016 and taking a trip to Dallas. He and Mike Gottschalk will be there, along with our AOAC-involved chemist Maria Ofitserova who always has a busy schedule during the meeting. Maria recently had her Theanine method accepted as an official AOAC method, so I am sure she will be excited to answer any questions about it!
We hope to see you at one of our next shows!
Pickering Labs would like to congratulate our winners of our last newsletter’s AAA quiz: Wanda Ingersoll from Mississippi Public Health Lab, David Green from Pepperdine University Natural Science Division, Narjes Ghafoori from LA County Environmental Toxicology Lab, and Helene Lachance from Shur-Gain Nutreco!
As the scrutiny of Glyphosate grows in the United States, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report has criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for not sufficiently monitoring residues of the chemical on foods. This February, the FDA announced testing of Glyphosate in foods including soybeans, corn, milk, and eggs. Meanwhile, consumer groups, academics and testing laboratories have claimed to have detected Glyphosate in breast milk, honey, cereal, wheat flour, soy sauce, and infant formula as well.
Analysis of Mycotoxins is an important part of food and feed safety. As regulations tighten laboratories all around the world expand their testing capabilities to include analysis for different types of toxic fungi metabolites. Pickering Laboratories has a diverse line of products designed for Mycotoxins analysis, including Pinnacle PCX post-column derivatization system, UVE photochemical reactor and immumoaffinity columns. We also developed several methods for single families of Mycotoxins as well as multi-residue protocols.
Our very own Gloria Garcia does an amazing job coordinating these two events every year, among others. Second in length-of-employment only to Michael Pickering himself, Gloria has a long history of epic event-planning under her belt. From Cirque du Soleil and Giants baseball games to waterparks (coworkers and swim suits, isn’t that awkward?!) and picnics, we always are prepared for a good time when we get together.
During 2015 AOAC International meeting, Maria Ofitserova participated in several panels meetings and discussions.
