ICPMS, definition

While all the isotopic compositions in these studies were measured with TIMS, other studies have utilized ICPMS measurements of lead isotopic compositions. For example. Dean et al. (1987) measured lead isotopic compositions in milk and wine, while comparable ICPMS analyses of lead isotopic compositions in other environmental matrices have been made by Date and Chung (1987), Delves and Campbell (1988), Caplun et al. (1984), Longerich et al. (1987), and Sturges and Barrie (1987). These studies indicated that quadrupole ICPMS measurements did not provide sufficient precision to adequately distinguish environmental lead sources on the basis of their stable isotopic composition (Russ 1989 Ward 1989) since the isotopic abundances of contaminant environmental lead typically vary by only 3%-7%. Further, most published ICPMS measurements of lead isotopic compositions in environmental and biological matrices have not included ratios for (1.4% natural relative abundance), which is required for definitive isotopic composition analyses. 

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