Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), Barcelona, Spain

CSIC is the main public scientific organisation in Spain and it comprises numerous Institutes, among them, the IDAEA. IDAEA is divided in two departments. The Department of Environmental Chemistry, aims at the study of the source, transport, and fate of environmental pollutants, and their effects on aquatic organisms and humans. Within the Department of Environmental Chemistry the Water Quality and Soil-Related Aspects Unit focuses its research on the solution of environmental problems, specifically in the area of water quality, through the development of new analytical methods for priority and emerging contaminants. The department has a complete set of very advanced instruments which includes various gas chromatography-mass spectrometry systems, bi-dimensional gas chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry and various liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry systems.