The Commission of the European Communities presents with this volume the proceedings and the conclusions of the second European Symposium on the analysis of organic micropollutants in water. This symposium has been organized within the framework of the Concerted Action "Analysis of Organic Micropollutants in Water". This research programme is jointly implemented by the European Communities and Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia within the framework of a COST (Cooperation Scientifique et Technique) agreement. The project, also known as COST Project 64b bis, aims at coordinating all relevant research in this field in the participating countries. An effort is made to improve methods and techniques for the identification and quantitative determination of organic compounds present in all types of water. The symposium permitted to review the results achieved during the past three years of research in the following areas: - Sampling and sample treatment - Gas-chromatography Separation of non-volatile compounds, in particular high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) - Mass-spectrometry - Data processing - Specific analytical problems, in particular the analysis of organic halogens and phenolic compounds. The volume gives a rather complete overview of the activities in this field in Europe. We are confident that it constitutes a valuable contribution to solving the important problems posed by the huge number of already identified or yet unknown organic pollutants in water. The Commission of the European Communities wishes to express their sincere thanks to the co-organizers, the National Board for Science and Technology, Dublin and An Foras Forbartha, Dublin.
