Development of methods for the quantification of essential and toxic elements in human biomonitoring

Analytical methods using sector field ICP-MS and ICP-AES were developed for the determination of Al, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Si, Sn, Sr, Tl, V, W, Zn and Zr in cerebrospinal fluid, urine, serum and blood. Sample treatment procedures merging high sample throughput, simplicity and low contamination risk were set up. Method performances were evaluated in terms of detection limits, accuracy and precision. The limits were below 0.05 ng ml(-1) for all the elements, except for Al (all matrices), Hg (blood), Pb (blood) and Sn (serum and blood). The accuracy varied from 86% to 110% and the precision was always below 6%.