Standardized ISO Methodologies for the Assessment of Microplastics: An Update on Key Developments

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Event Overview: 

As interest in microplastics in the environment and food chain grows, so does the interest in the potential impacts on environmental and human health. This, coupled with strong public attention, has led to various organizations worldwide looking towards the potential for regulations. For example, the European Chemical Agency is currently considering restrictions on the use of microplastics in the form of microbeads in personal care products. Furthermore, the first ISO standard document with general guidelines will be published this year. It can be expected that this will directly impact both official and contract laboratories and producers of drinking water, food, and other relevant products, which will need to better understand the amount, number, size, and ID of microplastic particles in their products. Alongside this broad approach, several countries are developing the standard testing methodology for microplastics in water, and the environment and organizations have been conducting inter-laboratory studies as a step towards harmonization of testing methodologies to ensure the comparability of results.

During this webinar, we will explore the development of these standard methodologies and some of the key challenges faced in their implementation.


Key Learning Objectives: 

  • What progress has been made in the development of standardized methodologies for microplastics?
  • What are some of the key challenges that remain in implementing these methodologies?
  • How might these developments impact other areas and the potential for implementing regulations?


Who Should Attend:
  • Microplastics researchers
  • Microplastics analysts from commercial, QA, or research labs who seek to understand how their methods might be compatible with developing standardized methodologies.
  • Those interested in the contamination of wastewater, seawater, freshwater, air, sediments, and food (such as fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and bottled water)



Featured Speakers:

Dr. Anja Sokolowski
Dr. Anja Sokolowski
Senior Project Manager
DIN Standards Committee Water Practice
Dr. Andreas Kerstan
Dr. Andreas Kerstan
Product Specialist
Agilent Technologies


Dr. Anja Sokolowski has been working as a project manager at DIN in the water practice committee since March 2018. She is responsible for ISO/TC 147/SC 2: “Water quality – Physical, chemical and biochemical methods” and JWG 1 “Joint ISO/TC 147/SC 2 – ISO/TC 61/SC 14 WG: “Plastics (including microplastics) in waters and related matrices." She previously studied chemistry at the Free University of Berlin and completed her doctorate in 2017.

Dr. Andreas Kerstan is a product specialist for molecular spectroscopy at Agilent Technologies in Germany. After his doctorate in 2011, he started at Agilent as an application chemist for FTIR and imaging. Two years later, he became a product specialist for the DACH region. For the past 3 years, he has also been responsible for developing the new IR-based QCL imaging system LDIR 8700, which specializes in the analysis of microplastics.


For any technical questions please contact Jorge de la Bandera: 
jdelabandera@mjhlifesciences.com