The Safe Soil Tester™
Technology for the rapid detection of hazards from PAHs in soils, sediments and man-made ground.
Soil is a valuable resource that performs a variety of functions for man and the environment. Natural and man-made contamination of soils and sediments are potential hazards to human and ecosystem health. Risk-based legislation for the management of land quality is driving the technology for monitoring and decision-making tools with applications in the survey, development and remediation of contaminated land.
The Safe Soil Tester™ is a low-cost field instrument for the rapid detection of soil contamination that employs bioluminescent bacteria and soil extraction procedures to target organics.
Light produced by the bioassay organism is quenched in the presence of toxic analytes, which provides an indirect measure of bioavailability and safety of the contaminating PAHs in a soil. Bioassay technologies reflect more on the behaviour of those analytes under certain soil physical and chemical conditions and whether they are likely to cause threats to ecological or human health.
The development of the SS Tester is fuelled by the need for decision-making, using diagnostic tools to enable rapid, on-site assessment and monitoring with the following benefits:
- Reduced cost and waiting time compared with laboratory analysis.
- Real-time outputs for cost-effective decision-making.
- Operation of the portable kits and instrumentation on-site does not require specialist skills.
- Single-use-only components reduces the likelihood of errors.
- Ability to test different media — soil, sediment, made ground.
- Auditable trail: unique sample I.D. and geo-referencing.
- Remote communication and GIS interface.