[Analysis of the European Directive 98/83/EC: paradigm of the justification and establishment of parametric values. The specific case of pesticides].

The health protection while ensuring the access to safe drinking water to the entire population is one of the main objectives all over the world. In this regard, the European Union, through Directive 98/83/EC, sets the parameters and maximum allowable parametric values to ensure the quality of water intended for human consumption. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the values established in the European Directive in comparison with other countries and organizations, such as the World Health Organization, based on toxicological justification, doing special mention to the case of pesticides, in which there is great difference between the parametric values set.

Characterisation and calibration of active sampling Solid Phase Microextraction applied to sensitive determination of gaseous carbonyls.

A characterisation of a system designed for active sampling of gaseous compounds with Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) fibres is described. This form of sampling is useful to automate sampling while considerably reducing the sampling times. However, the efficiency of this form of sampling is also prone to be affected by certain undesirable effects such as fibre saturation, competition or displacement effects between analytes, to which particular attention should be paid especially at high flow rates.