Subject: Heavy Metal Testing in plants

From: [email-masked] (John Lee)
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 1996 23:36:40 GMT

Hi,
	I'm a Sophomore at the Ocean Township High School in NJ.  For
my Honors biology class, each person has to do an orginal research
project that will be presented to the NJ Junior Academy of Science.
	For my project, I'm doing research to see if crop plants will
take in heavy metals if municipal sludge is used to fetilize the soil.

	My question is, what's the best/easiest way for me to detect
heavy metals, such as Mercury, Lead, or Cadmium.  What kind of
equipment do I need?  How would I be able to do this?

	Thank you.

	Johnie Lee

---

From: John Glowacki <[email-masked]>
Date: 9 Dec 1996 14:23:59 GMT

>equipment do I need?  How would I be able to do this?

One method is with an "Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer", better known 
as "AA".  Before analysis you need to get the plant tissue into solution 
using an acid digestion.  

I would suggest contacting your local University for help in this 
venture.  Also, NJ has many many private environmental labs.  They maybe 
able to offer assistence.

Another good contact would be "AWRA", American Water Resources 
Association.  http://www.uwin.siu.edu/~awra/index.html  They might offer 
some good leads.

Good luck.  You should find some good usable data.  You might even 
contact your state dept. of Natural Resources.  They probibly allready 
have data on this.

---

From: John Glowacki <[email-masked]>
Date: 9 Dec 1996 14:24:44 GMT