Selective determination of methyl mercury in biological samples by means of programmed temperature gas chromatography.

A programmed temperature gas chromatographic method is presented by which it is possible to carry out routine analysis of methyl mercury in biological samples prepared according to the AOAC official first action recommendations without the need for preliminary treatment of the columns. This method greatly extends the life of the columns as well as the useful time for analysis; it has good linearity and repeatability. With the proposed method a total of 36 samples can be analyzed daily.