Accumulation amalgam

Parsons et al.66 reported on the determination of total mercury as a toxic element in urine at the trace level using ICP-MS. The main sources of exposure in the human body are inhalation of Hg vapour released from dental amalgams and the consumption of fish species that accumulate, for example, methyl mercury (MeHg). 

Accumulation potential — is the value of potential for accumulating a certain reagent at the electrode surface or in the electrode volume (for instance in an - amalgam or when using the electroanalytical technique known as - stripping voltammetry. 

A special branch of cyclic polarography is the stripping analysis [10-13] which makes possible the determination of very small amounts of substances (subnanograms), j.e., an analysis of 10 " M solutions. The precision is lower than in cla ical polarography (here it is about 2%) and depends on the substance td be determined and on its concentration. The basis of the stripping analysis is an electrolytical accumulation from the solution of the substance to be determined on the stationary mercury electrode. This is effected either as amalgam or as film formation on the mercury electrode. In some special cases, a solid, e.g., carbon electrode. 

One possibility is to add quaternary ammonium salts to an aqueous reaction mixture the positive ions accumulate in the double layer [34-37] around the amalgam and... 

After 12-14 hours of exposure of rats to a relatively small amount of metallic mercury vapor (0.55 mg/m3), accumulation of mercury was observed within all cell types examined (ganglion cells, satellite cells, fibroblasts, and macrophages). Mercury has also been detected in dorsal root neurons and satellite cells of primates exposed for one year to mercury through amalgams in dental fillings or the maxillary bone (Danscher et al. 1990). 

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