Background Lead is a common occupational toxicant. Long-term exposure to lead can damage the nervous and hematopoietic systems. Blood lead concentration is an important biomarker for assessing recent lead exposure. Establishing an accurate and sensitive method for blood lead determination is of great significance for occupational health monitoring. Objective To establish and validate an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method for the determination of lead in blood. Methods Using an Agilent 7850 ICP-MS instrument, blood samples were directly diluted with a diluent containing 0.5% nitric acid and 0.01% Triton X-100. Holmium (Ho) was used as an online internal standard. Lead was measured at m/z 206, 207, and 208 in standard mode. The method was validated for linearity, detection limit, quantification limit, recovery, and precision according to the national standard GBZ/T 316.2-2018. Results Excellent linearity was observed in the range of 0–100 μg/L, with correlation coefficients (R²) of 1 for all three mass numbers. The detection limit was 0.013 μg/L, and the quantification limit was 0.044 μg/L. Recoveries at low (0.4 μg/L), medium (40.0 μg/L), and high (400.0 μg/L) concentration levels were 96.23%, 102.28%, and 100.64%, respectively, with relative standard deviations (RSD) of 1.10%, 0.45%, and 0.43%. Conclusion The method is simple, sensitive, and reproducible. All performance indicators are superior to the national standard requirements, making it suitable for rapid and accurate determination of lead in blood among occupationally exposed populations.
Xiaomin Zhou (Tue,) studied this question.