Rapid Direct Mercury Analysis in Soil Samples

The DMA-1 and DMA-80 mercury analysers from Milestone offer a rapid solution to the growing challenge of detecting mercury levels in soil.

The increased presence of mercury in our soils, thanks to industrial processes, the burning of fossil fuels and the use of pesticides, has increased the need to monitor mercury levels in soil and sediment.

Contaminated soil must be excavated and remediated, or depending on the level of contamination, disposed of as hazardous waste.

It’s a time-consuming process, but the Milestone DMA-1 and DMA-80 direct mercury analysers, distributed in the UK by Analytix, help laboratories in the food industry to optimise their mercury analysis processes.

The DMA-1 is a manual single analysis system that is designed for laboratories with low sample throughput. The DMA-80 is an automatic sample analyser with capacity for 40 samples, designed for larger workloads.

Neither system requires any sample preparation prior to analysis thus eliminating the risk of mercury loss and cross contamination. This also means ease of use, low running costs, and no need for handling and disposal of hazardous chemicals. In addition both systems have the advantage of ‘running on air’ that removes the requirement for in-house or bottled gases.

The DMA-1 and DMA-80 have been used to develop the US EPA method 7473. They are also compliant with ASTM D-6722-01 and ASTM D-7623-10.