Mercury and mercury compounds – Determination of mercury in blood and in urine by Cold Vapour AAS

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.