Ring discharge plasma - optical emission spectroscopy in the assay of environmental mercury

Mercury is known as an element of significant toxicity, which may cause wel l-characterized health hazards in animals and men. For the first time the p roblem came into Light in the 1950s in Minamata, Japan. Since then the dete rmination of mercury at ultratrace levels in environmental bodies has attai ned considerable importance. Consequently, several high sensitive mercury-a nalytical methods have been developed. In this work, the possibility of mer cury assay at ultratrace levels in the environment using ring discharge pla sma-optical emission spectroscopy (RDE - OES) is shown. Using this method t he mercury content in different bodies in the Baltic Sea Area has been dete rmined. Some data on mercury content and balance in serveral environmental bodies are also given.