DOE EML: Pb-01-RC: Lead-210 in Bone, Food, Urine, Feces, Blood, Air, and Water

Summary
Analytes
Revision
Data and Sites

Official Method Name

Lead-210 in Bone, Food, Urine, Feces, Blood, Air, and Water

Current Revision

EML Procedures Manual HASL-300, Volume 1, 28th Ed.(1997)

Media

VARIOUS

Instrumentation

Graphite Furnace-Atomic Absorption Spectrometer

Method Subcategory

Radiochemical

Method Source

DOE EML

Citation

DOE EML Procedures Manual HASL-300, Volume 1, 28th Ed.(1997)

Brief Method Summary

Lead-210 is isolated from most interferences. Its progeny 210Bi is separated from 210Pb, and the beta activity is measured by atomic absorption spectrometer radiometrically after ingrowth.

Scope and Application

This procedure is applicable to determination of lead-210 in samples of bone, food, urine, feces, blood, air, and water and is based on the solvent extraction of a lead bromide complex into Aliquat-336 (Petrow and Cover, 1965; Morse and Welford, 1971).

Applicable Concentration Range

None given.

Interferences

(A) Reagent blanks: It is necessary to analyze reagent blanks with each batch of samples to correct the lead-210 results.
(B) Inflated estimates of lead carrier yield: The stable lead content of some samples may be high enough to contribute a significant fraction to the total stable lead measured by AA. This would result in an inflated estimate of the lead carrier yield.
(C) Hydrogen peroxide contains measurable and variable amounts of stable lead and should be used sparingly.
(D) Lead-210 loss concerns: It has been shown at this Laboratory that no lead-210 loss occurs from bone dry ashed below 700 degrees C (Fisenne, 1994). The absence of lead-210 loss was determined for three bone types - ribs, vertebrae, and femur. It is the practice at EML to dry ash bones for lead-210 analyses at 550 degrees C.
(E) Cross contamination: High-level and low-level samples should be processed in independent batches to minimize possibility of cross contamination.

Quality Control Requirements

QC samples should be analyzed to ensure required limits of precision and accuracy are being met. QC samples include instrument calibration standards, blank samples, control samples, an "spiked" samples.

Sample Handling

None given.

Maximum Holding Time

None given.

Relative Cost

$51 to $200

Sample Preparation Methods

This method has 2 analytes associated with it.

Analyte	Detection Level	Bias	Precision	Pct False Positive	Pct False Negative	Spiking Level
Bismuth-210(14331-79-4) Bi-210 Bismuth-210	0.005 Bq/400 min	80% Yield	17.32 % RSD (SL)
Lead-210(14255-04-0) Lead-210 Pb-210	0.010 Bq/400 min	80% Yield	10.95 % RSD (SL)

Precision Descriptor Notes:	Precision value calculated from counter background and count time data.
Detection Level Note:	Lower Limit of Detection (LLD) given for (1) Pb-210 separation, Bi-210 ingrowth, and Bi-210 separation and (2) Bi-210 separation only. LLD calculated using Pasternack and Harley (1971) procedure in which the smallest amount of sample activity will yield a net count for which there is a confidence at a predetermined level that activity is present. The alpha value utilized is 0.05.

Revision	PDF/Link
EML Procedures Manual HASL-300, Volume 1, 28th Ed.(1997)

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DOE EML: Pb-01-RC: Lead-210 in Bone, Food, Urine, Feces, Blood, Air, and Water

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