GB-Lowestoft: for High resolution mass spectrometric analytical screens of cigarette butts, sediment and seawater

There is a requirement for an analytical service for high resolution mass spectrometric (HRMS) screens to include:

a) A series of quick tests with direct probe time of flight-mass spectrometry of coarse homogenates of cigarette butts (both freshly smoked and weathered) as a simple screen with a view to identify substances present at detectable concentrations. A list of substances of particular interest is provided at the end of this section for tenderers to consider.

b) Suspect screening by liquid chromatography-HRMS, on accurate mass, isotopic and fragmentation patterns. Suspect screening should focus on identification and not initially on quantification of extracts of freshly smoked cigarette butts (n=1-3), discarded cigarette butts (n=1-3) and in seawater (n=5-10, minimum of 50ml available) and sediment samples (n=5-10, minimum of 30g available per sample). The sediment and cigarette butts may undergo an extraction and clean-up step (e.g. with SPE) in such a way that as few as possible compounds will be lost.

c) A report with a summary of analytical methods and analytical results is expected. Please note that Cefas is intending to produce one peer reviewed publication for this work and might request additional information. Co-authorship to the paper is optional to tenderers, and conditional of a discount to overall pricing submitted in the Pricing Table (Schedule 2 below) .

List of suspect substances: Ideally, the screens should be able to detect the following substances detected in smoked cigarettes and reported elsewhere as potentially harmful in aquatic organisms: nicotine (CAS No 54-11-5), ethylphenols (CAS No. 90-00-6, 620-17-7, 123-07-9), phenol (CAS No. 108-95-2), tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (TSNA) such as N'-nitrosoanabasine (CAS No. 37620-20-5), N'-nitrosoanatabine (CAS No. 887407-16-1), N-nitrosonornicotine (CAS No 80508-23-2) and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (CAS 64091-91-4); and also a range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pyridines (for example 3-methylpyridine, 3,5-dimethylpyridine, 3,4-dimethylpyridine, 4-ethylpyridine, 3-acetylpyridine, 3-vinylpyridine), acetaldehyde (CAS No 75-07-0), formaldehyde (CAS No. 50-00-0)

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.