Microwave digestion for the determination of arsenic, cadmium and lead in seafood products by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission and mass spectrometry

Abstract

A single microwave digestion procedure was developed for use with a variety of seafood products. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission and mass spectrometry were used to determine the levels of As, Cd and Pb in samples of tuna, salmon, shrimp, walleye, clams, oysters and lobster. The precision for ten replicate analyses of clams was 2.1% for As at the 10.0 µg g–1 level, 5.6% for Pb at the 0.067 µg g–1 level and 2.5% for Cd at the 0.079 µg g–1 level. Acceptable spike recoveries in each of the sample types were achieved using both detection methods. Results for two standard reference materials were in good agreement with certified values