Determination of meconium lead level of newborn by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

To establish a method for the determination of lead in meconium from 144 samples of newborn through nitric acid digestion by means of graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Methods: After being baked for at least 12 h at 60°C, 0.3 g of meconium was digested by nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in turn at 80°C under water-bath condition for 1 h and then metered to the whole volume of to 2 mL. After correcting the background with D2 lamp, specimen basal corpuscle matched standard curve was used to detect the lead content. Results: The mean lead content of 93 experimental samples was 1.934μg&middotg-1 with the standard deviation (SD) of 1.551, and that of the 51 control samples was 1.012μg&middotg-1, with the SD of 1.084. There was a significant difference in lead levels of in meconnt between the experimental group and control group (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The lead content of the experimental was significantly higher than that of the control group detected by this method. This method was stable and efficient.