Determination of Submicrogram Quantities Of Mercury in Urine by Ion Exchange Separation

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Abstract
An ion exchange method for the complete separation of submicrogram and larger quantities of mercury from 0.3 to 0.5 milligram amounts of copper, lead, cadmium, thallium, zinc, and nickel is described. The mercury in a digest of a biological sample is adsorbed on an anionic resin and then eluted quantitatively with a 0.002M solution of thiourea in 0.01M HCL. The eluted mercury is complexed directly with a standard dithizone reagent and read spectrophotometrically at 490 millimicrons. The sensitivity is 0.3 microgram. Experiments with the stable isotope of mercury and with Hg-203 in urine have given recoveries exceeding 92 per cent.