Speciation of trace mercury impurities in fish oil supplements

Solid Phase Photothermo-Induced Chemical Vapor Generation: A New Desorption Method for Mercury Analysis by High-Throughput 20-Fiber Direct Immersion Solid Phase Microextraction

A simple solid phase photothermo-induced chemical vapor generation (SP-PT-CVG) is described and used as an environmentally friendly desorption method for the sensitive determination of mercury in water by direct immersion solid phase microextraction (DI-SPME) atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS). A DI-SPME array equipped with 20 nano-TiO2-coated tungsten fibers was employed to simultaneously preconcentrate mercury from 20 samples, enabling an extraction throughput of 40 samples per hour. Subsequently, the fibers were drawn from the sample solutions and inserted into an inner tube sealed in a specially designed UV lamp in turn for SP-PT-CVG to generate Hg0, which was swept to an AFS detector for its detection. It is worth noting that the tube served as both a vapor generator and a desorption chamber. This proof-of-concept study confirms the feasibility of solid phase CVG. Compared to conventional CVG carried out in the liquid phase, solid phase CVG not only retains the advantages of conventional CVG but also alleviates the matrix interference on vapor generation and preconcentrates analyte prior to vapor generation, improving analytical performance for liquid state samples. DI-SPME-SP-PT-CVG-AFS provides a limit of detection of 2.3 ng L-1 for mercury determination by AFS. In the proposed method, the combination of DI-SPME and SP-PT-CVG eliminates the tedious derivatization steps required in conventional headspace SPME, thus minimizing toxic reagent consumption and improving extraction throughput. The practicality of DI-SPME-SP-PT-CVG-AFS was evaluated by analyzing two different certified reference materials and river water samples with good spike recoveries (98-107%).

Optimization of a Digestion Method to Determine Total Mercury in Fish Tissue by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrophotometry

Several microwave-assisted digestion methods were tested at the Centro de Estudios Aplicados en Química laboratory in Quito, Ecuador, to determine the accuracy and performance efficiency of the mineralization process for the determination of total mercury in fish tissue by cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry. The use of MARSEasyPrep high-pressure vessels, low amounts of reagents (1 cm³ HNO₃, 1 cm³ H₂O₂, and 1 cm³ HClO₄), an irradiation temperature of 210 °C, and 35 min of mineralization time resulted in accurate performance, with recoveries of certified reference material DORM-4 between 90.1% and 105.8%. This is better than the Association of Official Analytical Chemists 2015.01 method, which has a reported accuracy of 81%. The repeatability precision and intermediate precision were established at three concentration levels (0.167, 0.500, and 0.833 mg·kg⁻¹) and expressed as the percentage of the relative standard deviation ranging from 1.5% to 3.0% and 1.7% to 4.2%, respectively. Further, the method was satisfactorily applied to analyze fortified samples of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), with recoveries ranging from 98.3% to 104.3%. The instrumental limits of detection and quantification were 0.118 µg·dm⁻³ and 0.394 µg·dm⁻³, respectively.

Determination of Total Mercury and Methylmercury Concentrations in Commercial Canine Diets

Methylmercury is an organic form of mercury that is well recognized for its bioaccumulation in aquatic species. Consumption of fish contaminated with methylmercury poses a toxicological health risk to both humans and animals. Salmon is an increasingly common ingredient in commercial pet foods because of manufacturers' interest in unconventional protein sources and inclusion of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Previous studies have measured total mercury, but not methylmercury, in commercial pet foods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in commercially available salmon-containing and nonsalmon-containing canine diets and to estimate risk of chronic exposure in dogs fed these diets long term. Total mercury was detected in 3 of 24 diets evaluated (12.5%), 2 of which did not contain any ingredients from fish. The single salmon-containing diet that contained total mercury was the lowest of the 3 but was also the only sample positive for methylmercury. None of the 3 mercury-containing diets contained fish oil. Concentrations of total mercury were similar to most data previously reported for pet foods. Using expected calorie intake for dogs of 2 body weights, the mercury concentrations determined in this study were applied to theoretical chronic exposure calculations to assess risk of toxicosis to dogs. Total mercury and methylmercury were uncommonly identified in the commercially available canine diets sampled in this study and were found in concentrations unlikely to pose risk to healthy adult dogs. Common sources of mercury in pet foods remain unknown and are not reliably of seafood origin.