Determination of antimony in human blood with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method is presented for the determination of antimony in whole human blood samples with an ICP-MS instrument using a quadrupole mass analyzer. A nitric acid/hydrogen peroxide open digestion procedure was employed for the blood sample treatment and preparation for analysis. The precision and accuracy of the method were evaluated by analyzing several Seronorm™ trace elements whole blood reference materials. The precision of the method at various antimony levels was better than 4% RSD and the recovery was greater than 92% at all levels. The detection limit, calculated as three times the standard deviation of the blank (3σ, n = 12), was 0.03 μg L⁻¹. The method was successfully applied for the determination of antimony in blood samples from school children in rural areas of Kwazulu/Natal, South Africa and adults from Dearborn, Michigan. Blood antimony levels ranged from <0.03 to 3.82 μg L⁻¹ in children and 1.40 to 4.35 μg L⁻¹ for adults.