Elevating Environmental Compliance with AOX Analysis

Halogenated organic compounds (HOC) have increasingly been used within various industries over the years. Some man-made halogenated compounds are toxic, mutagenic, or carcinogenic and they may have harmful effects on human health and the environment.

Adsorbable Organic Halogen (AOX) Compounds (X = Cl, Br, I) is a sum parameter for describing the organic halogen compound load in water, sewage sludge and soils. The parameter covers a large group of substances from simple volatile substances such as trichloromethane (chloroform), or complex organic molecules such as dioxins/furans with a large variety of toxic properties. Most AOX’s are chlorine-containing molecules, but bromo- and iodo-AOXs do also occur.

AOX compounds pose a potential concern because they resist breaking down in the environment, and therefore they have long half-life periods. Some of these molecules toxic and can pose a threat to aquatic organisms living in estuaries because they can bioaccumulate in the food chain. Hence, AOX can be important in effluent quality monitoring from both landfill leachates, and industry, in order to meet discharge limits.

Our laboratory development team has worked quickly and efficiently to create a robust, effective method which produces accurate and reproducible results for the various waste water streams, giving the client reliable results whether from a clean ground water sample to a highly contaminated trade effluent.