title: Total mercury in the hair of children by combustion atomic absorption spectrometry (Comb-AAS).
abstract: A simple and rapid procedure for measuring total mercury in human hair was evaluated and compared with a conventional technique. An Advanced Mercury Analyzer (AMA-254) based on sample catalytic combustion, preconcentration by gold amalgamation, thermal desorption, and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) (Comb-AAS) was assessed for the direct determination of milligram quantities of human hair. Precision (% relative standard deviation) was < 7% and accuracy was determined by using two human hair reference materials (i.e., NIES No. 13 and IAEA-086) that were within the certified range. In comparison to conventional graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (GF-AAS), we found that our method obtained statistically equivalent results. Because total analysis time per sample was less than 10 min, the Comb-AAS method was in fact much faster than the GF-AAS method. In addition, Comb-AAS does not generate waste products and could be mainly useful for the analysis of a large amount of samples. Then, the authors suggest that this quick method could be useful for measuring mercury in human hair. Therefore, the mercury content in hair for a non-exposed group of children (n=40) living in Spain was evaluated. The mean and median hair mercury levels for the subjects under study were found to be lower than the value of 1 microg/g, corresponding to the reference dose of 0.1 microg of methylmercury per kilogram body weight set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Geology Department, ICTJA-CSIC, Lluis Solé Sabarís, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. sdiez@ija.csic.es
authors.forename: Sergi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Díez
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Montuori
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Querol
authors.forename: Josep M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bayona
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013030:Spain; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury