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The study presents the development and validation of a method for analyzing phenolic compounds in ambient air using TD-GC/MS. Phenols in the air are known for their toxic and carcinogenic properties, making accurate analysis crucial for assessing their distribution and potential impacts on human health and the environment. The TD-GC/MS technique offers significant advantages over traditional methods by automating sample preparation and improving reproducibility and accuracy. This approach enables sensitive and precise analysis of 9 phenols compounds in ambient air. The optimized method demonstrated high sensitivity, allowing for the detection and quantification of phenols at trace levels in the low parts-per-trillion range. It also exhibited excellent selectivity, distinguishing target phenols from potential interferences in air samples. The validation parameters, such as LOD, LOQ, linearity, and recovery, confirmed the method's reliability and performance. Overall, the developed method, in conjunction with appropriate materials and instrumentation, provides a reliable and efficient approach for analyzing phenolic compounds in ambient air. It contributes to the advancement of air quality monitoring and risk assessment strategies by enabling the identification of pollution sources, evaluation of exposure levels, and formulation of effective mitigation measures to protect human health and the environment from the harmful effects of phenols.

In order to maintain the RENAR (Romanian Accreditation Association) accreditation, each accredited laboratory must periodically participate in interlaboratory testing programs carried out with specialized providers or similar laboratories. In December 2021, an interlaboratory comparison in the field of environmental protection was organized by INCD ISEMEX PETROȘANI. The current paper examines the similarity of results of two auto-laboratories, in similar sampling points to demonstrate the competence of accredited laboratories. During the interlaboratory test session, immission measurements (nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide), ambient noise measurements and determination of suspended dust concentration were performed. The main objective of the interlaboratory tests is to comply with limits established by the bilateral testing protocol, and all these results can be processed and achieved in situ due to systems endowing the auto-laboratories, which integrate all the measurements performed in situ. Results of the study indicate very close values found by the two mobile laboratories, which leads to the performance requirement for all components analysed, namely coefficients of variation below 20%.

Contamination of aquatic and terrestrial environment with oil products is a major problem in processes of extraction, transport and processing of crude oil. Derived organic compounds, resulting from fractional distillation of crude oil often end up in wastewater and surface water causing irreversible effects on aquatic ecosystems. Thus, it’s necessary to identify and qualitatively determine the total content of petroleum products in water, by classical chemical, chromatographic and infrared spectroscopy methods. Gathering high-resolution spectral data was performed by a modern method, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), a relatively precise, high accuracy data method. The study’s main purpose is to describe most important steps to be followed to obtain representative results for the use of FTIR spectrometry in determining total content of petroleum products in water. Steps described in the study involve drawing the baseline, calibrating the method with certified reference materials and estimating the uncertainty degree of the analysis method used. The study of total content of petroleum products is addressed especially to researchers in the field of analytical chemistry to update the methods used, environmental engineers to estimate the pollution degree of a body of water and (PhD) students who want to deepen the field of petroleum compounds analysis.

Global development of transportation dependent on internal combustion engines, involves major increases in the consumption of fossil fuels obtained by extracting crude oil from depths by means of wells and refining it. In this context, protection of environment and groundwater quality is an increasingly difficult objective to maintain, requiring modern methods to address possible negative effects on the environment. The current research assesses the degree of eco-toxicological and environmental risk for an oil exploitation area in case of an accidental pollution scenario with crude oil. The entire risk spectrum was analysed through a set of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment tools to highlight and quantify the most important effects caused by petroleum products on biotope and biocenoses. The primary aim of the research is to identify vulnerable environmental reservoirs for accidental oil pollution and to establish the best tools to quantify the environmental and ecotoxicological risk of groundwater contamination. The results obtained from the area showed a low to medium risk of contamination of the saturated and unsaturated area with crude oil expressed as TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons) and a low risk of contamination with volatile organic compounds type BTEX associated contamination of biocenoses that can directly or indirectly interact with potentially polluted areas.

Household landfills can be important sources of air quality contamination if they do not comply with technological sorting and storage procedures. Also, workers' exposure to environmental hazards endangers their health over time. A significant amount of household waste is stored in cells, monthly, after a sorting process that leaves a considerable ecological footprint. In this study we analysed air quality at the boundary of a compliant household landfill, as well as the quality of work environment of landfill’s workers. To do this, we performed measurements on two levels (air quality and work environment) over three months, following different phases of waste disposal and different activities involving workers serving the facilities. From an applied perspective, results obtained from research activities provide clear answers to questions related to ways in which environmental components are affected by waste storage activities, and workers are exposed to professional noxious. Results show that the landfill deteriorates environment quality, over time, as well as health of workers. Topic relevance is in connection with its potential future contribution to development of knowledge in the approached field, to be able to quantify progress, once integrated systems for modern ecological collection and storage have legislative regulations.