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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Determination of Inorganic Arsenic in a Wide Range of Food Matrices using Hydride Generation - Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.
Published on: September 1, 2017
Arsenic K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy of arsenic in seafood
Graham N George1, Roger C Prince, Satya P Singh
1Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
Abstract:
It is well known that seafood contains high levels of arsenic. For marine animals arsenic is predominantly present as arsenobetaine and related compounds which are not metabolized and are thought to present no toxic hazard to humans. With edible seaweeds, arsenic is present in different forms, of which arsenosugars are the best known. These species may be metabolized by mammals, and the high arsenic contents of these materials represent a significant environmental source for human exposure to arsenicals in some populations. In this work, we explore the utility of As K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy as an in situ probe of the chemical forms of arsenic in seaweeds. We find that three different chemical types of arsenic are present, consistent with arsenate, an arsenosugar or tetra-alkyl-arsonium species, and a trivalent arsenic species.
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