The Laboratório de Análises Químicas, Industriais e Ambientais (LAQIA), which belongs to the structure of the Chemistry Department of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), performs research related mainly to the identification and quantification of elemental impurities (metals, heavy metals and nonmetals) and their species using spectrometric methods (mass, atomic and optical spectrometry) associated with separation techniques (liquid and gas chromatography) in environmental (soil, water, sediment), biological ( vegetables, blood and tissues), medicines, foods, medicinal plants, coal, shale, petroleum and its derivatives.