The Technical Secretariat of the OPCW wishes to inform Member States that it will hold a course on the development of analytical skills for analytical chemists supporting customs services. The course is scheduled to be held at the OPCW Laboratory in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, from 8 – 12 July 2019.
Aim
The aim of the course is to assist qualified analytical chemists from laboratories that support, or plan to support, customs services or offices in acquiring further experience and practical knowledge of the analysis of chemicals related to the Chemical Weapons Convention. In addition, the course will facilitate the adoption of good laboratory practices for the implementation of the Convention.
Content
The training course will include a variety of lectures and laboratory work. The lectures will cover general aspects of the OPCW, the Convention, and the Verification Annex to the Convention. It will also cover the chemical structure and properties of scheduled chemicals, the methods of separation and structure elucidation, and the detection and analysis of scheduled chemicals at various concentration levels.
Practical laboratory work will include:
- gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and analyte identification using the Automated Mass Spectral Deconvolution and Identification System (AMDIS) and the OPCW Central Analytical Database (OCAD);
- sampling and sample preparation methods for GC-MS analysis; and
- hand-held Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy for rapid identification.
The course will accommodate 10 participants—seven sponsored participants from countries whose economies are either developing or in transition, and three non-sponsored participants from developed countries.