A new neutron activation technique for simultaneous determination of inorganic and total mercury contents in human hair

A simple method for simultaneous determination of inorganic and total mercury contents in human hair by neutron activation analysis (NAA) has been developed. The method is based on the selective extraction of methylmercury from hair by hydrochloric acid. Thus, the residual phase containing inorganic mercury can be determined by NAA. Further, the methylmercury contents in hair samples are easily calculated by subtracting the inorganic mercury contribution from the total Hg simultaneously given by INAA. Several reference materials of human hair, including IAEA hair RM 085 and 086, Chinese hair RMs GBW 09101 and 07601, were analyzed by this method. Our results show that the method is reliable.