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mercury

  • Occupational Exposure to Mercury: Air Exposure Assessment and Biological Monitoring based on Dispersive Ionic Liquid- Liquid Microextraction

    Occupational Exposure to Mercury: Air Exposure Assessment and Biological Monitoring based on Dispersive Ionic Liquid- Liquid Microextraction

    A b s t r a c t

    Background: Exposure to mercury (Hg) as a heavy metal can cause health effects. The objective of this study was to assess occupational exposure to Hg in a chlor-alkali petrochemical industry in Iran by determining of Hg concentrations in air, blood and urine samples. Methods: The study was performed on 50 exposed subjects and 50 unexposed controls. Air samples were collected in the breathing zone of exposed subjects, using hopcalite sorbents. Analysis was performed using a cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometer (CV-AAS) according to NIOSH analytical method 6009. For all participants, blood and urine samples were collected and then transferred into sterile glass tubes. After micro-extraction with ionic liquid and back extraction with nitric acid, Hg concentrations in blood and urine samples were determined by CV-AAS. Results: The mean concentration of air Hg was 0.042± 0.003 mg/m3. The mean concentrations of Hg in blood and urine samples of exposed subjects were significantly higher than unexposed controls (22.41± 12.58 versus 1.19± 0.95 μg/l and 30.61± 10.86 versus 1.99± 1.34 μg/g creatinine, respectively). Correlation of air Hg with blood Hg, urine Hg and blood Hg-urine Hg ratio were significant statistically (P< 0.05). Conclusions: The values of Hg in blood and urine samples of chlor-alkali workers were considerably high. Correlation coefficients showed that blood Hg and blood Hg-urine Hg ratio are better indicators than urine Hg for assessing occupationally exposed workers in terms of current exposure assessment.

    Authors

    Hamid SHIRKHANLOO, Farideh GOLBABAEI, Hamid HASSANI, Farrokh EFTEKHAR, Mohammad Javad KIAN

    Results and discussion

    Based on the preliminary experiments, the retention of Pb (II) and Ni (II) ions on a GO-packed micro-column was chosen for preconcentration of the metal ions and their subsequent determination by FAAS. Hence, in order to obtain quantitative recoveries of Pb (II) and Ni (II) ions with good sensitivity and precision, the presented SPE system was optimised for various analytical parameters.

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  • Ultra-trace arsenic and mercury speciation and determination in blood samples

    Ultra-trace arsenic and mercury speciation and determination in blood samples

    A b s t r a c t

    A simple, fast, and sensitive method for speciation and determination of As (III, V) and Hg (II, R) in human blood samples based on ionic liquid-dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (IL-DLLME) and flow injection hydride generation/cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (FI-HG/CV-AAS) has been developed. Tetraethylthiuram disulfide, mixed ionic liquids (hydrophobic and hydrophilic ILs) and acetone were used in the DLLME step as the chelating agent, extraction and dispersive solvents, respectively. Using a microwave assisted-UV system, organic mercury (R—Hg) was converted to Hg(II) and total mercury amount was measured in blood samples by the presented method. Total arsenic content was determined by reducing As(V) to As(III) with potassium iodide and ascorbic acid in a hydrochloric acid solution. Finally, As(V) and R—Hg were determined by mathematically subtracting the As(III) and Hg(II) content from the total arsenic and mercury, respectively. Under optimum conditions, linear range and detection limit (3σ) of 0.1–5.0 μg L−1 and 0.02 μg L−1 for As(III) and 0.15–8.50 μg L−1 and 0.03 μg L−1 for Hg(II) were achieved, respectively, at low RSD values of < 4 % (n = 10). The developed method was successfully applied to determine the ultratrace amounts of arsenic and mercury species in blood samples; the validation of the method was performed using standard reference materials. c 2015 Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences

    Authors

    Hamid Shirkhanloo, Aisan Khaligh, Hassan Zavvar Mousavi*, Mohammad Mehdi Eskandari, Ali Akbar Miran-Beigi

    Results and discussion

    To reach high enrichment factor and good sensitivity and precision of mercury and arsenic speciation and determination in blood samples, the proposed IL DLLME method was optimized for various analytical parameters such as solution pH, concentration of the chelating agent, amounts of ILs, sample volume, etc.

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