APPLICATIONS OF LASER-ABLATION INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY TO THE DETERMINATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS IN CALCIFIEDBIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

Many calcified biological structures record changes in organism exposu re to environmental contamination. Preservation of spatial and tempora l information on historical changes in contaminants within a structure demands direct analysis of the solid samples. Laser ablation sampling (LAS) is a technique which offers the potential to undertake such ana lyses. This paper outlines changes made to hardware and software of a commercial sampler to allow auto sampling of solid materials in conjun ction with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The potential of LAS coupled to ICP-MS for spatially resolved analysis is demonstrated with measurements on several different types of calcified biological structures which incorporate trace metal contaminants at t he time of deposition. The results indicate that changes in concentrat ion in several trace metals are detectable and that the changes most l ikely relate to changes in exposure.