Mercury in urine

A number of workers have described methods for the determination of mercury in which the mercury is first reduced to the element or collected as the sulfide on a cadmium sulfide pad. It is then volatilized into a chamber for measurement. These techniques are extremely sensitive. Thillez108) recently described a procedure for urinary mercury in which the mercury is collected on platinum and then volatilized into an air stream. Rathje109) treated 2 ml of urine with 5 ml of nitric acid for 3 min, diluted to 50 ml, and added stannuous chloride to reduce the mercury to the element. A drop of Antifoam 60 was added and nitrogen was blown through the solution to carry the mercury vapor into a quartz end cell where it is measured. Six nanograms of mercury can be detected. Willis 93) employed more conventional methods to determine 0.04 ppm of mercury in urine by extracting it with APDC into methyl-n-amyl ketone. Berman n°) extracted mercury with APDC into MIBK to determine 0.01 ppm. 

Figure 7.8. Step sequence for the determination of total and organic mercury in urine. (Reproduced with permission of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Ref [44].)...

ACGIH TLV TWA 0.1 mg(Hg)/m3 (sHn) BEL 35 ng/g creatinine total inorganic mercury in urine preshift 15 ng/g creatinine total inorganic mercury in blood at end of shift at end of workweek. 

---