English Abstract The investigations are described carried out to track
the analytical problems associated with the procedure for the mercury
determination operational until recently. Solutions found for these
problems finally resulted in the improved analytical procedure outlined in
annex III. The new method was validated extensively by reference samples
with certified mercury content and by recovery experiments. Also described
are the results of the reinvestigation of the lyophilized subsamples of the
duplicate 24-hour diets collected in 1984/1985. Based on the new analytical
data the mercury intake of the 110 respondents sampled in 1984/1985 has been
recalculated. On average, the new intake data are half those obtained in
the first investigation in 1987. Avarage mercury intake found now for the
110 adult respondents, males and females, is 1.0 mug per capita per day
versus 2.2 mug in 1987. Lowest mercury intake calculated now is 0.3 mug
per capita per day; highest intake 7.2 mug per capita per day. In terms
of tolerable daily intake (TDI) for total mercury of 43 mug for an adult of
60 kg body weight, the average (N=110) intake is 2.3% and the range 0.7 to
16.7% of the TDI.
