Selenium status in the blood of Australians using neutron activation analysis

Selenium determination by neutron activation analysis via both short and longlived selenium isotopes was performed on 98 samples of whole blood taken from Sydney workers. Half of the samples were further separated into their compenents and selenium measured on the erythrocyte and plasma fractions. The average selenium concentrations for blood, plasma and erythrocytes were 0.103, 0.091 and 0.117 g·ml^–1, respectively. These are compared with literature values for Australia and other countries.