Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

An evaluation of a reagentless method for the determination of total mercury in aquatic life

January 1, 2006

Multiple treatment (i.e., drying, chemical digestion, and oxidation) steps are often required during preparation of biological matrices for quantitative analysis of mercury; these multiple steps could potentially lead to systematic errors and poor recovery of the analyte. In this study, the Direct Mercury Analyzer (Milestone Inc., Monroe, CT) was utilized to measure total mercury in fish tissue by integrating steps of drying, sample combustion and gold sequestration with successive identification using atomic absorption spectrometry. We also evaluated the differences between the mercury concentrations found in samples that were homogenized and samples with no preparation. These results were confirmed with cold vapor atomic absorbance and fluorescence spectrometric methods of analysis. Finally, total mercury in wild captured largemouth bass (n = 20) were assessed using the Direct Mercury Analyzer to examine internal variability between mercury concentrations in muscle, liver and brain organs. Direct analysis of total mercury measured in muscle tissue was strongly correlated with muscle tissue that was homogenized before analysis (r = 0.81, p < 0.0001). Additionally, results using this integrated method compared favorably (p < 0.05) with conventional cold vapor spectrometry with atomic absorbance and fluorescence detection methods. Mercury concentrations in brain were significantly lower than concentrations in muscle (p < 0.001) and liver (p < 0.05) tissues. This integrated method can measure a wide range of mercury concentrations (0-500 ??g) using small sample sizes. Total mercury measurements in this study are comparative to the methods (cold vapor) commonly used for total mercury analysis and are devoid of laborious sample preparation and expensive hazardous waste. ?? Springer 2006.

Publication Year 2006
Title An evaluation of a reagentless method for the determination of total mercury in aquatic life
DOI 10.1007/s11270-006-9101-6
Authors Sekeenia Haynes, Richard D. Gragg, Elijah Johnson, Larry Robinson, Carl E. Orazio
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Water, Air, & Soil Pollution
Index ID 70030363
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Columbia Environmental Research Center