CRITICAL COMPARISON OF METHODS FOR MERCURY DETERMINATION IN FISH

One of the major analytical problem in the analysis of fish tissues for total mercury is the dissolution of the sample. This paper compares two different methods of wet digestion (microwave and closed pressurized vessel), followed by FIAAS as final determination and a Zeeman-solid-sample-AAS determination method without previous mineralization. Six fish samples were selected for this study. The top, the central and the bottom portions of the fish were analyzed separately. The mercury contents in the bottom portions determined by Zeeman-solid-sample-AAS were significantly higher than those obtained by the other two systems. A good correlation was observed among the results of the different techniques.