News
BUSINESS PROFILE Radian International gets a new owner The Dames and Moore Group announced in June that it will acquire Radian International LLC from The Dow Chemical Company. Radian, a technical services firm primarily known for its work in the environmental area, has offices throughout the world. At the heart of Radian is its analytical chemistry capabilities. At its headquarters in Austin, TX, Radian provides regulatory support and fixed-protocol analyses for a variety of clients, including the U.S. federal government (e.g., Department of Defense, Department of Energy), state and local governments as well as commercial clients Radian's analytical laboratories are well-equipped to handle a variety of sample matrixes (air, water, or soil) at an impressive rate of 100-150 samples per day. "We are a large-scale production operation," says Sharon Mertens, head of Radian's analytical laboratory in Austin. "Last year we analyzed 70,00075,000 samples." Automation is key to Radian's success. Autosamplers are used whenever possible, allowing several instruments to be loaded in the morning and left to run all day without supervision. The one area that is not yet automated however is sample preparation "Sample prep is still labor-intensive" Mertens "If dealing with just water we'd have predictable matrix and could automate more However we are dealing with a wide variety of samnles each with its own preparatory reauirements " In addition to providing analytical services, Radian also manufactures chemical reference materials. "Our
572 A
group's main business is providing standards for forensic and environmental laboratories," says Alan Nichols, head of the Analytical Reference Materials group in Austin. "We also do custom synthetic organic chemistry for a variety of customers, such as pharmaceutical companies and the federal government." Radian's Analytical Reference Materials group got its start synthesizing pesticide metabolites and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1979. In the 1980s, ,i became the first group to synthesize a complete series of isotope-labeled chlorinated dibenzo-^-dioxins and dibenzofurans and later went on to manufacture deuteriumlabeled forensic science standards. Today it manufactures more than 1000 products, including standards for a wide range of drugs of abuse and their metabolites explosives steroids and alcohol as well as environmental standards for several EPA Methods Radian is particularly well-known for its air-monitoring and sampling methods. "We do a lot of waste incinerator permitting, boiler/industrial furnace work, and ambient air monitoring," says Mertens. For monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ambient air, Summa stainless steel canisters are installed in a monitoring station. Samples are typically collected over 24 hours and sent back to the lab for analysis of VOCs. The data are combined with other measurements taken at the station and, when looked at over time are used for regulatory compliance, assessing risk and providing planning information. "For a typical ambient air program we look at 130-160 volatile compounds" says Mertens Most ambient air-monitoring programs are set up to look at long-term trends. For example, Radian has been running a large metropolitan regional monitoring program for 18 years, looking for changes in air quality. Radian also uses its air methods to determine whether municipalities are in compliance with clean-air regulations (e.g., monitoring source emissions for toxic metals) and, in some cases for emergency response. "If there is an accidental release, samples can be sent back to the lab for immediate analysis." Because Radian does business in several states and internationally, laboratory certification has become a big issue, says Mertens. "We have over 20 different state certifications, and in many cases they have
Analytical Chemistry yews & &eatures, September 1, 1998
Summa canisters for the analysis of VOCs.
conflicting requirements." Document control is also a monumental task, she says. "Because we are doing regulatory work, all of the documentation must be centralized. We also have to produce a hard copy on everything that we do. Unfortunately it is not yet acceptable in most courts of law or regulatory applications to have just an electronic copy." Rather than follow prescriptive methods, Radian uses a performance-based approach. They have documented standard specifications (i.e., requirements of the method, capability to perform the method, detection limits, statistically derived tolerances for quality control, etc.) for all of the analytical protocols that they run. 'We use those specifications as our standard, but on each job we compare the requirements of our standard specifications with those of the client. Working with the client and regulatory requirements we make modifications when needed" says IVlertens "Even thouj?h analysts SOPs [standard operating procedures] the standard that they need to that which is documented in the protornl specifiration " Radian began implementing this nerformance-based measurement system in 1991 "It took us a conple of vears tn pet evervthinp in nlare anrl sret the snerifiratinns top-pfh .. Mprten« "WP'VP hppn usincr it consistently for at leastfivevears and have greatly improved our quality and cost effectiveness. Britt Erickson
