Speciation 98: Abstracts

The last few decades of research have witnessed an awareness change from that of believing that the biological response was proportional to the total amount of a trace element or of a vitamin present to that of the recognition (a) that it is the actual chemical speciation of the metal complex which dictates the bio-response and (b) that an overdose of essential trace element complexes can be deleterious to health.

This growing realisation has been accompanied by a drive towards developing new analytical methods that are capable of monitoring chemical speciation at exceedingly low levels in extremely complicated systems. For example, the ability to monitor trace metal complexes in blood plasma involves selecting the species from thousands of other species which are present.

The recognition that all chemistry, and especially that involved in the environment in the human body, is governed by the laws of physical chemistry, and that such physical chemistry constants can be used in order to extrapolate beyond the feasible levels of analysis has led to the development of an area of chemical speciation modelling which is close-coupled with experimental data required in order to verify and validate such modelling.

It is pleasing to note that several areas of environmental protection, healthcare, medical treatments, and industrial productivity and efficacy are now dependent on a knowledge based upon computer speciation modelling of the chemical speciation prevailing in the system under study. Examples will be described in these fields.

For the future, we must expect more legislation to involve details concerning chemical speciation as well as analytical data for the total amounts present. It is also necessary to tackle the difficulties of convincing a non-chemically literate public of the subtleties of our subject and the benefits of the speciation chemistry, if correctly handled.

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