Matthew Trass

The current state of economic affairs is tumultous; as the economy struggles to bounce back, companies across all industries are becoming more creative in finding ways to reduce costs without sacrificing the quality of their goods or services. According to a recent survey conducted by the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT), 64.5% of forensic labs surveyed are implementing changes, or plan to implement changes, as a result of limited resources.

This study demonstrates a faster method of analysis when coupling a simplified and effective SPE procedure with a core-shell HPLC column and LC–MS-MS detection.

Barbiturates are a class of antidepressants whose abuse and addiction by recreational users has become a widespread problem (www.nlm.nih.gov). In our work we strived to streamline the barbiturate screening process to provide a fast, cost-effective, and reproducible method from start to finish for forensic labs who are involved in high-throughput processing.

The Zebron ZB-Bioethanol GC column reduces fuel ethanol analysis time to less than 8 min, while providing complete resolution of methanol and ethanol from all denaturant components. This newly developed GC column is suitable for analysis following ASTM Method D 5501 and Europe prEN 15376.