Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg?












2












$begingroup$


In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







$endgroup$

















    2












    $begingroup$


    In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



    Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?










    share|improve this question









    New contributor




    Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.







    $endgroup$















      2












      2








      2





      $begingroup$


      In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



      Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?










      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.







      $endgroup$




      In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



      Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?







      concentration notation units






      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 2 hours ago









      andselisk

      19.2k662125




      19.2k662125






      New contributor




      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      asked 2 hours ago









      NakxNakx

      1134




      1134




      New contributor




      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.





      New contributor





      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






      Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






















          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          3












          $begingroup$

          You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
          This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



          IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




          Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
          analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



          $$
          begin{array}{lllll}
          hline
          text{Name} & text{Symbol} & text{Value} & text{Examples} & text{Replacement} \
          hline
          ldots & & & & \
          text{part per billion} & text{ppb} & 10^{-9} & text{The air quality standard for ozone is a} & pu{mmol/mol} \
          & & & text{volume fraction of}~varphi = 120~text{ppb} & \
          ldots & & & & \
          hline
          end{array}
          $$




          References




          1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)






          share|improve this answer











          $endgroup$














            Your Answer








            StackExchange.ready(function() {
            var channelOptions = {
            tags: "".split(" "),
            id: "431"
            };
            initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

            StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
            // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
            if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
            StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
            createEditor();
            });
            }
            else {
            createEditor();
            }
            });

            function createEditor() {
            StackExchange.prepareEditor({
            heartbeatType: 'answer',
            autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
            convertImagesToLinks: false,
            noModals: true,
            showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
            reputationToPostImages: null,
            bindNavPrevention: true,
            postfix: "",
            imageUploader: {
            brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
            contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
            allowUrls: true
            },
            onDemand: true,
            discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
            ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
            });


            }
            });






            Nakx is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










            draft saved

            draft discarded


















            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fchemistry.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f112760%2fis-1-ppb-equal-to-1-%25ce%25bcg-kg%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown

























            1 Answer
            1






            active

            oldest

            votes








            1 Answer
            1






            active

            oldest

            votes









            active

            oldest

            votes






            active

            oldest

            votes









            3












            $begingroup$

            You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
            This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



            IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




            Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
            analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



            $$
            begin{array}{lllll}
            hline
            text{Name} & text{Symbol} & text{Value} & text{Examples} & text{Replacement} \
            hline
            ldots & & & & \
            text{part per billion} & text{ppb} & 10^{-9} & text{The air quality standard for ozone is a} & pu{mmol/mol} \
            & & & text{volume fraction of}~varphi = 120~text{ppb} & \
            ldots & & & & \
            hline
            end{array}
            $$




            References




            1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)






            share|improve this answer











            $endgroup$


















              3












              $begingroup$

              You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
              This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



              IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




              Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
              analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



              $$
              begin{array}{lllll}
              hline
              text{Name} & text{Symbol} & text{Value} & text{Examples} & text{Replacement} \
              hline
              ldots & & & & \
              text{part per billion} & text{ppb} & 10^{-9} & text{The air quality standard for ozone is a} & pu{mmol/mol} \
              & & & text{volume fraction of}~varphi = 120~text{ppb} & \
              ldots & & & & \
              hline
              end{array}
              $$




              References




              1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)






              share|improve this answer











              $endgroup$
















                3












                3








                3





                $begingroup$

                You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
                This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



                IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




                Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
                analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



                $$
                begin{array}{lllll}
                hline
                text{Name} & text{Symbol} & text{Value} & text{Examples} & text{Replacement} \
                hline
                ldots & & & & \
                text{part per billion} & text{ppb} & 10^{-9} & text{The air quality standard for ozone is a} & pu{mmol/mol} \
                & & & text{volume fraction of}~varphi = 120~text{ppb} & \
                ldots & & & & \
                hline
                end{array}
                $$




                References




                1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)






                share|improve this answer











                $endgroup$



                You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
                This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



                IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




                Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
                analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



                $$
                begin{array}{lllll}
                hline
                text{Name} & text{Symbol} & text{Value} & text{Examples} & text{Replacement} \
                hline
                ldots & & & & \
                text{part per billion} & text{ppb} & 10^{-9} & text{The air quality standard for ozone is a} & pu{mmol/mol} \
                & & & text{volume fraction of}~varphi = 120~text{ppb} & \
                ldots & & & & \
                hline
                end{array}
                $$




                References




                1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)







                share|improve this answer














                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer








                edited 2 hours ago

























                answered 2 hours ago









                andseliskandselisk

                19.2k662125




                19.2k662125






















                    Nakx is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










                    draft saved

                    draft discarded


















                    Nakx is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













                    Nakx is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












                    Nakx is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















                    Thanks for contributing an answer to Chemistry Stack Exchange!


                    • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                    But avoid



                    • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                    • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                    Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


                    To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                    draft saved


                    draft discarded














                    StackExchange.ready(
                    function () {
                    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fchemistry.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f112760%2fis-1-ppb-equal-to-1-%25ce%25bcg-kg%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                    }
                    );

                    Post as a guest















                    Required, but never shown





















































                    Required, but never shown














                    Required, but never shown












                    Required, but never shown







                    Required, but never shown

































                    Required, but never shown














                    Required, but never shown












                    Required, but never shown







                    Required, but never shown







                    Popular posts from this blog

                    Сан-Квентин

                    Алькесар

                    Josef Freinademetz