Determination of organomercury in biological reference materials by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry using flow injection analysis

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used for the determination of organomercury in two marine biological standard reference materials for trace metals (dogfish muscle tissue DORM-1 and lobster hepatopancreas TORT-1). In most parts of this study, the organomercury was extracted as the chloride from the material with toluene and back extracted into an aqueous medium of cysteine acetate. Since the final extracts contained more than 4% sodium, isotope dilution and flow injection analysis were used to respectively counter the effect of concomitant elements and avoid clogging the interface. Comparison of results with gas chromatography shows that the only significant organomercury is methyl-mercury. At least 93% of mercury in DORM-1 and 39% of mercury in TORT-1 exist as methylmercury.