INVESTIGATIONS TO THE BERYLLIUM CONTENT O F POTATOES AND SOILS

Beryllium becomes because of its enormous toxicity more and more inter esting for environmental analysts. In this work the beryllium-contents of 41 potatoe-samples (circle divide: 10 potatoes per sample), collec ted in all parts of Germany were determined by Zeeman-AAS. The concent rations ranged from 0.8 mu g/kg d.s. to 7 mu g/kg d.s. with an average content of 2 mu g/kg to 3 mu g/kg. It was necessary to use an enrichm ent procedure to measure this low concentrations. For that reason the beryllium was extracted as an acetylacetonato-complex into dichlormeth ane. In addition the geographic distribution of beryllium in german so ils was analyzed. The occurrence of beryllium is in industrial regions significantly higher than in more agriculturally used areas. The soil -samples showed a correlation between their contents of beryllium and other metals.