ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the development and application of immunoassays for biological and environmental monitoring with emphasis on the research conducted in the laboratory. Ecologists, wildlife biologists, toxicologists, and other environmental scientists devote much effort to the study of pesticides in the environment. The demonstration of cause and effect relationships between the presence of these chemicals and observed changes in ecosystems, through the use of environmental and biological monitoring, demands sound analytical chemistry. Immunoassay, an analytical method fairly new to the environmental sciences, offers an appropriate analytical option for many monitoring studies. Because the development of immunoassays requires a significant investment of time and resources, target analyte selection is important. Haptens are target analyte mimics which are used both for the immunization of animals and for competitive binding in the assays. Enzyme immunoassays have been developed in this laboratory for the biological and environmental monitoring of many compounds of environmental relevance: herbicides, insecticides, and other toxic compounds and some selected metabolites.
