The cold vapor technique is an atomization method applicable
only to the determination of mercury because it
is the only metallic element that has an appreciable vapor
pressure at ambient temperature.6 The determination of
mercury in various types of samples is of vital importance
currently because of the toxicity of various organic
mercury compounds and their widespread distribution in
the environment. 7 The method of choice for this analysis
is cold vaporization followed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.
In performing analyses of this type,