Mercury and mercury compounds – Determination of mercury in blood and in urine by Cold Vapour AAS
Biomonitoring Method – Translation of the German version from 2019
Peter Heitland1Thomas Göen2
Andrea Hartwig3
MAK Commission4
1 Medical Laboratory Bremen, Haferwende 12, 28357 Bremen, Germany
2 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social, and Environmental Medicine, Henkestraße 9–11, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
3 Institute of Applied Biosciences, Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Adenauerring 20a, Building 50.41, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
4 Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kennedyallee 40, 53175 Bonn, Germany
Abstract
The working group “Analyses in Biological Materials” of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area validated the presented biomonitoring method.
Mercury is determined by flow injection cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (CV‐AAS). The digested blood or urine samples are stabilised with potassium permanganate, introduced into the acid carrier flow (hydrochloric acid) and mixed with the reducing agent sodium borohydride. Mercury vapour formed by reduction is transported with an argon flow into the atomisation cell of the AA spectrometer.
Calibration is performed using matrix matched calibration solutions. The mercury concentrations in real samples are calculated from the linear relationship between the measured absorbance and the mass concentration of mercury.
