Chapter 38: Arsenic Analysis

Abstract

This chapter aims to clarify the reason why arsenic concentrations of Japanese controls were one order of magnitude higher than other countries, from the viewpoint of analytical chemistry. The inorganic arsenic analyses in biological samples in Japan had only been performed by one research group, i.e. Yamauchi's group, and thus the analytical results have never been checked. This chapter is the first critical review of Japanese arsenic analyses for 44 years since Yamamura and Yamauchi began the arsenic analysis in 1976. The arsenic analyses were performed between late 1976 to early 2000 by Yamauchi's group, first using HG-AAS (hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry) and since 1998 using SRXRF (synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence) with Nakai. The Gutzeit method is used for detecting the arsenic element in the analyte by altering AgNO 3 paper to have a black color. The error sources of arsenic analysis using HG-AAS and SR-XRF are concluded in this chapter.