title: Interlaboratory bias in the determination of mercury concentrations in commercially available fish utilizing thermal decomposition/amalgamation atomic absorption spectrophotometry.
abstract: Four commercially available fish fillets were freeze-dried, homogenized, and analyzed for mercury by the Texas A&M Trace Element Research Laboratory and the Utah Public Health Laboratory (UPHL) utilizing thermal decomposition/amalgamation atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Two-way analysis of variance detected bias in the data between the two laboratories. Some of the bias could be attributed to different calibration curve quantitation and near detection limit quantitation, albeit causal explanations could be confounded with other effects. Knowledge of analytical bias will aid interpretation of interlaboratory data. The swordfish mercury content, as determined by both laboratories, was about 1 ppm, while mercury content found in the Atlantic salmon was about 0.021 ppm. For the Alaskan halibut, the Texas A&M measured a mercury concentration of 0.155 ppm, while the UPHL measured a mercury concentration of 0.181 ppm for the same fish. The Texas A&M determined that the Canadian-raised salmon contained about 0.019 ppm of mercury, while the UPHL determined a mercury content of about 0.025 ppm for the same fish. The mercury found within the fish fillets did not exceed nationwide mercury mean values determined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Division of Epidemiology and Laboratory Services, 46 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84113-1105, USA. sbutala@utah.gov
authors.forename: Steven J M
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Butala
authors.forename: Larry P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Scanlan
authors.forename: Sanwat N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Chaudhuri
authors.forename: Deborah D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D003132:Commerce; D005399:Fishes; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000379:methods*; D013781:Texas; D014589:Utah
chemical_list: D008628:Mercury