Simple combustion-vapor trapping technique for determination of mercury in fish.

A simple combustion train was constructed for analyzing mercury in fish samples. A nitric acid trap was used to capture the mercury vapors which were released later by adding a tin salt. The method is rapid, accurate, and reproducible and permits one person to analyze 40 samples daily. Sample matrix had no apparent effect on the recovery of mercury. Mean recoveries from fish samples spiked with 0.3 and 1.0 microgram mercuric chloride/g ranged from 97 to 105% with an average recovery of 101.5% and a standard deviation of 2.74%.