Nondestructive determination of arsenic in urine by epithermal neutron activation analysis and Compton suppression.

Epithermal neutron activation analysis, in conjunction with Compton suppression, has been employed to determine arsenic levels in artificially doped urine samples. Typical detection limits were of the order of 10 ng/g. Replicate determinations gave precision values between 2 and 12%, whereas accuracy measurements were between +/- 1 and +/- 20%. Biological and geological reference materials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were also analyzed for arsenic content. Typically, the precision achieved again was between 2 and 12%, whereas the accuracy measurements were in excellent agreement with the certified values.