The potential of arsenic speciation in molluscs for environmental monitoring

This paper reports the assessment of total arsenic and six arsenic species (As(III), As(V), MMA, DMA, AsBet, AsCol) as contaminants of mussel samples collected around the island of Sardinia and in the Gulf of Venice. The samples were analysed using cation- and anion-exchange HPLC-HG-AFS for speciation and ICP-AES for the total As determination. To ensure the robustness of the routine analytical method, the technique was validated using a candidate reference material, BCR-710, and good agreement was obtained. It was recognised that higher total arsenic concentration in mussels does not necessarily result in higher toxicity of mussel samples.