VALIDATION AND QUALITY-CONTROL OF METHYLMERCURY DETERMINATIONS BY MEANS OF CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

Methyl-Hg is one of the most dangerous pollutants in the environment. It is highly toxic and accumulates through the food chain. Tuna fish e specially tends to concentrate Hg in the form of methyl-Hg. Quality as surance is a well established routine in analytical laboratories to co ntrol the variability of analytical results and to maintain adequate s tability, detection power and reproducibility. Capillary electrophores is (CE) has shown in recent years powerful capabilities for the resolu tion and analysis of very complex samples. The high resolution and pea k capacity characteristics of this technique could be used favourably in speciation studies of organo-Hg compounds. Since the time needed fo r separation is usually very short in this technique, it lends itself to routine analysis. The application of quality control approaches in the analysis of methyl-Hg in tuna freeze-dried materials using CE is r eported.