Determination of methyl mercury in fish by flameless atomic absorption spectroscopy and comparison with an acid digestion method for total mercury.

A method for the concurrent determination of methyl mercury and inorganic mercury by flameless atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) is described. Fifty-seven samples of juvenile black marlin fish were analyzed for inorganic and methyl mercury, and total mercury was calculated by addition of the 2 values. The sensitivity of the method was estimated to be 0.029 mug for inorganic mercury and 0.033 mug for methyl mercury. The detection limit of the method was about 0.02 mug inorganic mercury or methyl mercury and the error of the method was found not to exceed 10% for samples giving about 10% deflection on the absorbance scale. Samples from the same fish were analyzed by a commonly accepted flameless AAS method for the determination of total mercury. When the results for total mercury from the 2 methods were statistically compared, using a paired t-test, the difference between the results obtained by the 2 methods was found to be insignificant at the 95% confidence level.