Determination of Mercury Content in Canned Tuna using ICP-MS

Abstract

Fish is a great source of proteins and ?3 fatty acids and is consumed in large quantities in areas near the sea. Canned Tuna is a salt water fish and is readily available at the stores. Presence of solid metals, particularly mercury (Hg), in sea foods, especially in canned Tuna has been observed. Canned tuna, available at stores, contains mercury in significant quantity which is dangerous for human health and can damage intestines, liver, digestive system, and even brain. Fish can be dangerous to our health as fish contains s little amount of mercury as well in it. Extra consumption can lead to threats from the amount of mercury consumed through eating mercury contaminated fish. Purpose of this study is to determine the Mercury content in canned Tuna using ICP-MS. ICP-MS is a technique that uses the measurement of the intensity of the stream of ions produced in the plasma. Ions produced inductively coupled plasma is then separated by means of mass analyzer due to the ratio of mass to charge. To determine the mercury content in canned tuna, canned Tuna was purchased from M&S supermarket. Analytical grade acid/chemicals were used in order to reduce contamination. The experimental study reveals that canned Tuna contains an average level of 0.3111 µg/g wet weight.

Table of contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Aims and Objectives1

Purpose of the Study2

Literature review3

Mercury in Tuna4

We Eat More and More Mercury5

Beware of Tuna!5

Mercury Contamination5

Toxins Produced By Germs or By Degenerative7

Toxic Substances of Endogenous7

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (CP-MS) Method7

Description8

Applications9

Construction and Operation of a Mass Spectrometer10

Determining the Mass of Particles11

Experimental12

Materials13

Method13

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)12

Results1

Discussion6

Results6

Strengths and Weaknesses6

Conclusions7

Recommendations7

Further Research8

References9

Determination of Mercury Content in Canned Tuna using ICP-MS

Introduction

Solid metals are assumed to be the most significant form of toxic waste of the marine environment due to the accumulation and toxicity by fishes in sea. Among all, mercury (Hg) is a well identified toxicant of human and the main sources of contamination of mercury in human are fishes. The aim of this study was the determination of the mercury content in samples of canned tuna. It was carried out the statistical analysis of the factors that influence its accumulation (packing, preparation and commercial brand), and the evaluation of the toxicological risk due to its consumption of samples, which are commercialized in UK, and were subjected to digestion, in medium of acid on a microwave station. The determination of mercury content was carried out by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) [1].

Aims and Objectives

Objective of this study are to highlight the presence of canned Tuna that contains the mercury (Hg) in it which is hazardous to human health if consumed in large amount. Those hard metals found in the foods and Mercury in canned Tuna is very much common now and is found commonly in the canned Tuna available in the market. This study is also aimed to provide the evidence of the mercury content in canned Tuna through experiment which gives complete understanding of the mercury content in canned ...