title: In-situ measurements of low-level mercury vapor exposure from dental amalgam with zeeman atomic absorption spectroscopy.
abstract: Alongside food, emissions from amalgam fillings are an essential contribution to man's mercury burden. Previous methods for the determination of intraoral mercury vapor (Hg degrees ) release used principally some form of preconcentration of Hg on gold (film or wool), allowing relatively few measurements with unknown precision and sensitivity at selected times. Recently available computer-controlled Hg detectors operating on Zeeman atomic absorption spectroscopy (ZAAS) facilitate the direct real-time measurement of Hg degrees concentrations. It was the aim to adapt this method for a comparative investigation of emission processes from fillings in situ and from amalgam specimens in vitro. In addition to the ZAAS instrument, the apparatus consisted of a pump, magnetic valves, an electronic flow controller and a handle with a disposable mouth piece for aspiration of oral air. A programmable timer integrated the computer-controlled instrument operation and the data collection into a standard sampling protocol. A fast exponential decay of the emission was found after stimulation of amalgam specimens and of fillings in situ (halftimes 8.6 and 10.7 min). Precision was evaluated by a series of measurements on a single patient which indicated a consistently low coefficient of variation between 18% and 25%. After insertion of a few new fillings, sensitivity was high enough to detect a significant increase in emission against the background emission from the majority of old fillings. Zeeman-AAS in connection with a semi-automated sampling protocol and data storage provides precise in-situ measurements of Hg degrees emission from dental amalgam with real-time resolution. This facilitates the detailed exploration of the Hg degrees release kinetics and the applicability to large-scale studies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Toxicology, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Halbach
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Welzl