1.12 Describe the impact advances in analytical chemistry have had on the hazardous waste
management field.
The advances of analytical chemistry in the late 1960s and early 1970s have enabled those in the
environmental field to detect and measure contaminants at concentrations several orders of magnitude
smaller than possible just a few years earlier. We can now detect toxic chemicals at concentrations below
one part per billion (ppb). While in almost all cases, such low concentrations are unlikely to have any
public health implications, the mere existence of "measurable" quantities of toxic materials in the
environment often creates public demand to "do something".