ECD

[WK]

Dear All
General question:
I am not familiar with the ECD.
What are the practical considerations?
ie safety,source used,disposal of source,maintenance etc.
Is the source expensive to replace?
How long does it last?
Thanks WK

[MikeD]

With respect to safety considerations since you are in the UK the Ionising Radiation Regulations apply and the overhead in complying with these is considerable. Are there other ECDs in your organisation ? I have to assume not because to comply with UK law you must have access to a trained Radiation Protection Supervisor (RPS) who can advise you (or you yourself must undergo training as an RPS). There must be a written risk assessment. You must have written local rules. Your organisation must appoint an external Radiation Protection Advisor (RPA) in a consultant role. The RPS must sign at least monthly to certify that the ECD has not gone missing! Your records are subject to periodic audit by your RPA.

Cost to exchange for reconditioned source the last time I looked was ~£1200 (Agilent). End of life disposal cost was from £2000.

Do you really need an ECD ?

[WK]

Thanks Mike D,
As you correctly guessed we have no ECD here!
Crumbs - it sounds like its an awful lot of aggro for perhaps little gain.
Cost (time and ££) has to be born by the company if an ECD is necessary.
Is there any health risk associated with sitting in the lab all day with one of these?
Best Regards
WK

[CE Instruments]

The sources used in ECD detectors are Nickel 63 10 micro curie sources and are housed in sealed enclosures, there is no radiation danger from a complete detector. You do however require to register the source should you buy one. The Thermo ECD detector ECD -40 is about £1600 plus amplifier and these can be obtained second hand. We currently know of users who would be happy to pass on used detectors to certified sites able to use them. In our experience recycling of old sources costs £600-800 and must be carried out at an accredited site.

[MikeD]

WK,

We have about 50 sources of all kinds, including X-ray and open sources, so the overhead for each additional ECD is not that great. ECDs are exempt from certain requirements of the Regulations. We don't have to monitor with portable radiation meters for example, but we must arrange leak-testing of the vent tube every 2 years. I don't have any recent experience of labs with just one or two Ni63 sources, so I don't know how they manage with the burden of record keeping, RPS/RPA involvement etc. I just described. I agree it sounds like overkill. Until about 10 years ago we just had to register their existence. A risk assessment will show no risk, as CE Instruments says - that is unless someone breaks into the lab, detaches the ECD, breaks it open and eats the source!

Even now interpretation of the regulations is changing. Recently our RPA insisted we hired a specialist contractor to move a GC/ECD instrument from one building to another.

[Mark]

WK,

Depending on your app, Valco makes an excellent pulse-discharge detector which can be operated in an electron capture mode and uses no radioactive source. Excellent product! (Nope, don't work for them).

Regards,
Mark