Vancouver Island University (VIU) researchers have developed a new and groundbreaking way of measuring algae toxins in fresh water bodies, such as Thetis and Elk Lakes.
Due to climate change, in many bodies of fresh water across BC and all of Canada there is a much higher frequency of blue-green algae, which is also known as cyanobacteria.
This type of algae can produce potentially deadly toxins harmful to both human and animal health through skin contact and ingestion.
“As global warming has increased, the prevalence of these blooms has also increased, and they threaten access to safe drinking water supplies as well as recreational opportunities across Canada,” said Dr. Chris Gill, a VIU Chemistry Professor and Co-Director of the university’s Applied Environmental Research Laboratories.
“The risk to human health is significant: dogs and wildlife have died from the effects of water contaminated with these toxins.”
Gill and one of his masters student’s, Lucas Abruzzi, have been developing new techniques using paper spray mass spectrometry.
These methods are being used to measure these toxins in less time and at a lower cost than traditional techniques currently being used by organizations such as Island Health, who are responsible for testing lakes on Vancouver Island for blue-green algae.
According to Gill, current measurement methods for blue-green algae toxins are time-consuming, costly and not as accurate as their newly developed technique.
Because they are not as accurate, this means that closures could occur unnecessarily in waterbodies that actually have safe levels of toxins.
Additionally and more importantly, unsafe toxin levels could be missed, leading to potential human or animal exposures.
“You can’t necessarily tell if toxins are present just by looking at a lake. Sometimes the bloom isn’t on the surface. A lake could look clear and safe but there could still be toxins present,” said Abruzzi.
“Different areas of a lake could also have varying levels of bloom, so the toxin isn’t always universally dispersed. The only way to compensate for this is through more frequent and widespread testing.”
By using paper spray mass spectrometry, a tiny volume of water sample (a fraction of a drop) can be transferred to a strip of paper and introduced directly into the mass spectrometer for measurement.
VIU says that results can be obtained within just two minutes as compared to conventional techniques which take up to 30 minutes per sample.
“That’s why it’s revolutionary, there’s very little sample preparation,” said Gill.
Paper spray mass spectrometry methods have been in the works at VIU since 2014 and algal toxin detection methods for the past three years.
