Looking at the literature available, it is clear that there is a need for a book on LC-MS applications in environmental analysis. This book endeavours to answer the following questions: What interface to use to solve "my detection problem"? Can I obtain enough sensitivity for the confirmation of my compound in real-world environmental samples? Is there enough structural information?The present book aims to provide a critical evaluation of LC-MS in environmental chemistry and it is structured in different areas. Apart from an introductory section with fundamental aspects, application areas using the most relevant interfacing systems (PB, TSP, ES) for the characterization of environmental compounds are included. In this sense, applications are discussed on the characterization of the most relevant compounds of environmental interest such as pesticides, detergents, dyes, polar metabolites, waste streams, organotin compounds and marine toxins with comparison between different interfacing systems. Finally, new methods and strategies in LC-MS, e.g. the use of capillary electrophoresis, MS together with on-line post-column systems in LC-MS are also shown.By the nature of its content and written as it is by experienced practitioners, the book is intended to serve as a practical reference for analytical chemists who need to use LC-MS in environmental studies. Each chapter includes sufficient references to the literature to serve as a valuable starting point and also contains detailed investigations. The broad spectrum of the book and its application to environmental priority compounds makes it unique in many ways.

A new approach to safety, based on systems thinking, that is more effective, less costly, and easier to use than current techniques. Engineering has experienced a technological revolution, but the basic engineering techniques applied in safety and reliability engineering, created in a simpler, analog world, have changed very little over the years. In this groundbreaking book, Nancy Leveson proposes a new approach to safety—more suited to today's complex, sociotechnical, software-intensive world—based on modern systems thinking and systems theory. Revisiting and updating ideas pioneered by 1950s aerospace engineers in their System Safety concept, and testing her new model extensively on real-world examples, Leveson has created a new approach to safety that is more effective, less expensive, and easier to use than current techniques. Arguing that traditional models of causality are inadequate, Leveson presents a new, extended model of causation (Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes, or STAMP), then shows how the new model can be used to create techniques for system safety engineering, including accident analysis, hazard analysis, system design, safety in operations, and management of safety-critical systems. She applies the new techniques to real-world events including the friendly-fire loss of a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter in the first Gulf War; the Vioxx recall; the U.S. Navy SUBSAFE program; and the bacterial contamination of a public water supply in a Canadian town. Leveson's approach is relevant even beyond safety engineering, offering techniques for “reengineering” any large sociotechnical system to improve safety and manage risk.