Application of the atomic Faraday effect to the trace determination of lead

The atomic Faraday effect has been applied to the trace determination of lead in NBS Orchard Leaves, human blood, and volcanic ashes. Suspensions of powder samples and diluted whole blood are directly pipetted into a graphite tube atomizer. Spectroscopic and practical features are discussed of the atomic Faraday effect of lead. The inherent feature of insensitivity to background scattering makes the present technique suitable for practical analysis. The problem associated with loss of transmitted optical energy caused by non-atomic species was overcome by a correction method. Consequently, the present technique enabled us to perform rapid analyses, gave a detection limit of 5 × 10^?11 g and fair accuracy, at least satisfactory for practical analysis. Some problems arise from residue build-up in the atomizer.