Simple, rapid digestion technique for the determination of mercury in sea food by flameless atomic absorption spectroscopy

A rapid digestion technique, using a Teflon vessel, for mercury determination by flameless atomic absorption spectroscopy was collaboratively studied. Average recoveries of added mercury to samples of freeze-dried shrimp and blended frozen tuna (8 collaborators) were 92, 87, 100, and 9 8% for levels of 0.25, 0.30, 0.45, and 0.50 μg, respectively, with standard deviations of 0.030, 0.046, 0.048, and 0.067. The digestion technique has been adopted as official first action.