5:00 p.m. Tour of the A-B Biotechnology Department

5:30pm Mix and Mingle in the Harvey L. Haynes Corporate Technology Training and Conference Center

6:00 p.m.     Dinner

7:100 p.m.     Lecture

Executive Committee Meeting after speaker

Reservations: Please RSVP by Tuesday, February 2, 2010 to Lisa Hale. Her e-mail address is lhale@abtech.edu. Please include the names and affiliations of each person attending. We always welcome attendance at the presentations even if you are unable to come for the dinner!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a number of nationwide compliance monitoring programs that require approved analytical methods to assure data quality. The commonly used trace metals methods are based on atomic absorption, atomic emission and elemental mass spectrometry. The use of elemental mass spectrometry within this compliance monitoring context has continued to grow, driven by the multi-element capability and the inherent sensitivity of ICP-MS. Method 200.8 is one of the oldest approved ICP-MS methods, initially released in 1990. It was updated in 1994 to address instrument interface and detector technology changes and to date has not been updated to address the advent of interference reduction technologies. The Office of Research and Development and the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water have been working with the four instrument vendors to incorporate interference reduction technology into a revised Method 200.8. This performance based evaluation involved the analyses of ten test solutions containing matrix components prone to producing polyatomic interferences associated with ICP-MS. Some of this data will be presented in the context of matrix induced false positives and their impact on a method update.

Method 200.8 is a total recoverable methodology which does not capture the chemical form specific information essential to risk driven exposure assessment for arsenic. Although species specific information is essential within the assessment, it has become increasingly apparent in recent years that the metabolic intermediates produced from an exposure may play a significant role in understanding how arsenic expresses its toxicity. Within this context, we have been evaluating the role of the microflora within the intestine as a source of presystemic biotransformation of arsenic oxides. These transformations take place prior to uptake by the organism and may influence not only the species available for uptake but also characterize the arsenic containing precursor for any downstream metabolism prior to excretion. The second part of this presentation will discuss the use of an in-vitro system to investigate the biotransformation of arsenic oxides by the microflora from the intestine. Most of the presentation will focus on the use of IC-ICP-MS and LC-ESI-MS/MS as analytical tools to identify and quantify the arsenicals produced by the in vitro system.

Dr. Sid Parrish - Chair 20109.
Dr. David Butcher - Chair-Elect 2011
Alice Claggett - Secretary 2010
Dr. Julia Brumaghim – Treasurer 2010
Mrs. Lucy Pryde Eubanks - Councilor 2009-11.
Dr. Royce S. Woosley – Councilor 2008-2010
Dr. George Heard - Alternate Councilor 2009-11.
Dr. John Kaup - Alternate Councilor 2008-10.

The Western Carolinas section of the American Chemical Society (WCACS) is proud to participate in the ACS sponsored Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED) poetry competition. Specific details on the contest are available through the attached PDF or by directly linking to the ACS CCED site (www.acs.org/earthday). WCACS will accept up to four (4) entries per grade category per school. The grade categories, as indicated on the contest form, are K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Entries must be received by Friday April 2nd to be considered for the national competition. As an example, an elementary school with K through 5th grade students could submit a total of 8 entries: 4 entries from students in the K – 2nd grade and 4 entries from students in 3rd – 5th grade. Local section volunteers will judge the submissions based on the criteria indicated in the contest guidelines and will forward one winning entry in each of the four grade categories to the national competition. Feel free to contact John Kaup (john.kaup@furman.edu) if you have additional questions.
Submission should be sent to the following address:

The Western Carolinas Section of the American Chemical Society will hold its annual Outstanding Seniors Award dinner on April 13, 2010 in the Townes Science Center on the Furman University Campus. We are excited to have ACS Past President Dr. Tom Lane as our special guest speaker this year. Please select your institution?s Outstanding Senior Chemistry Major and forward it to Tim Hanks at tim.hanks@furman.edu or at (864) 294-3373. If your department has not already received a copy of the Awardee Information Form or if you have any questions about the program, please contact Tim as soon as possible. Each Outstanding Senior will receive a certificate and a gift from the Section.

The date for the Chemistry Olympiad is April 23rd this year. If you are interested in participating in this competition please contact George Heard at gheard@unca.edu or (828) 232-5170

On January 12, 2009, registration opened for all attendees to register for the ACS 237th National Meeting to be held in San Francisco, CA, March 21-25, 2010. Early registration fees started on December 21, 2009, and will last through February 2, 2010. More information about the meeting is available at:

Western Carolinas Local Section of the ACS honors our members who have attained recognition by the National American Chemical Society as 50 year and 60 year members. Awards were presented to these WCACS members at the September meeting which was held Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at the USC-Upstate Campus in Spartanburg, SC. Below are the names of our members who have achieved this status. Please join in expressing our congratulations to them.

Our Webmaster, Dwayne Grassie, would welcome your "press releases" about activities that you believe would be of interest to our section. As he says so eloquently on our web site, "without active members reporting the activities of the section to me there would be no web site because there would be nothing to report." Dwayne can be reached at: MAG-IT@charter.net