DETERMINATION OF LEAD AND CADMIUM IN FOOD AND BLOOD BY INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY - A COMPARISON WITH GRAPHITE-FURNACE ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY

To compare inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and g raphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) as the method for determining lead and cadmium in the human diet and blood, 418 diet homogenate samples and the same number of blood samples were collecte d from Chinese and Japanese women and were analyzed by the two methods . The results showed that our ICP-MS method is precise and accurate, b eing comparable to the GF-AAS method established previously. The ICP-M S method is simple and fast spending only one-tenth of the time necess ary for GF-AAS and allows simultaneous analyses of lead and cadmium wi th low detection limits. When applied to actual sample analysis, howev er, ICP-MS results tend to be 10-20% lower than GF-AAS results in the analysis of lead in the diet and blood and cadmium in blood. This is p ossibly due to some interference in ICP-MS and matrix of samples. As t he ICP-MS results could be mathematically corrected to be equivalent t o the GF-AAS results, we conclude that this ICP-MS method can be used as a routine analytical method for the determination of lead and cadmi um in human diet and blood samples. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.