analytical chemistry Editor: Herbert A. Laitlnen EDlTORiAL HEADQUARTERS 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: 202-872-4570 Teletype: 710-8220151
Global Environmental Monitoring
Managing Editor: Josephine M. Petruzzi Associate Editor: Andrew A. Husovsky Associate Editor, Easton: Elizabeth R. Rufe Assistant Editors: Barbara Cassatl, Deborah M Cox, Nancy J. Oddenino Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Associate Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre Art Director: John V. Sinnett Artist: Diane Reich Advisory Board: Donald H. Anderson, Richard P. Buck, Velmer Fassel, David Firestone, Robert A. Hofstader, Marjorie G. Horning, Philip F. Kane, Barry L. Karger, J. Jack Kirkland, Lynn L. Lewis, Harry B. Mark, Jr., Walter C. McCrone, Harry L. Pardue. Eugene A. Sawicki, w. D. Shults lnstrurnentatlon Advlsory Panel: Gary D. Christian, Nathan Gochman, Robert W. Hannah, Gary Horlick, Peter J. Kissinger, James N. Little, Sidney L. Phillips, R. K. Skogerboe, Donald E. Smith ContributingEditor: Claude A. Lucchesi Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, 111. 60201 Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036
Books and Journals Division Director: D. H. Michael Bowen Editorial: Charles R. Bertsch Magazine and Production: Bacil Guiley Research and Development: Seldon W. Terrant Circulation Development: Marion Gurfein Manuscript requirements are published in the December 1976 issue, page 2297. Manuscripts for publication (4 copies) should be submitted to ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY at the ACS Washington address.
A committee of the National Research Council has made recommendations as to the proper tasks for GEMS, the Global Environmental Monitoring System of the United Nations Environmental Programme. The International Environmental Programs Committee, chaired by Gilbert F. White of the University of Colorado, has issued a 26-page report entitled “Early Action on the Global Environmental Monitoring System”. It is recommended that GEMS should not, initially, make observations or collect data. Its purpose is to provide early warning of environmental trends or changes, whether natural or induced by the activities of man, that directly or indirectly threaten human activity. Essentially the problem is to provide a clearinghouse for existing environmental monitoring by national and international agencies. From the viewpoint of analytical chemistry, it is interesting that the report identifies as among the most important tasks of GEMS the encouragement of intercalibration of instruments, the maintenance of highly accurate standards of measurement, and the stimulation of statistically sound sampling protocols. Data must be reported in a form compatible with respect to efficient storage and retrieval, and what is most important from the analytical viewpoint, measures of quality, such as the intercalibration results from the originating laboratory, must be included with all data. It is most encouraging to note that the committee has evidently taken into consideration the need for more than just an accumulation of analytical data, for a storehouse of inadequately validated readings would not only be useless, but could be decidedly harmful in leading to erroneous decision making.
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The American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors. Views expressed in the editorials are those of the editors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the American Chemical Society. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 49, NO. 3, MARCH 1977
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