Seminar: PCDD/Fs prediction from FP-XRF metals determination

PCDD/Fs prediction from FP-XRF metals determination in large agricultural areas

Maria Grazia Bonelli, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy

Andrea Manni 2, 2 Chemical Research 2000 Srl, Roma, Italy

When   large   agricultural   areas   are   polluted   by   either   heavy   metals   and   organic micropollutants such as PCDD/Fs and PCBs is necessary to use screening procedures to preliminary assess the extent of the contamination. Heavy metals in soil can been efficientlyscreened by field portable X-Ray Fluorescence (FP-XRF).  Organic micropollutants can be screened by immunoassay methods but they are still quite expensive and time consuming posing  a  serious  challenge  in  the  determination  of  the  pollution  in  large  areas  such  as agricultural soils due to the large number of sample to be analyzed. 
The aim of the present study has been to find an analytical procedure to estimate unknown concentrations of PCDD/Fs on the grounds of statistical relationships between the organic micropollutants  and  metal  values  measured  by  FP-XRF  by  means  of  an  Artificial  Neural Network (ANN) data modelling.