Method for the determination of thorium and uranium in urine by ICP-MS

ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) is shown as a very sensitive method for quantitative determination of Th and U concentration and excretion analysis in urine without any sample pretreatment. The current standard method for incorporation monitoring applies alpha-spectrometry, a very tedious and time consuming technique. ICP-MS offers an attractive alternative for monitoring of thorium and uranium body burdens in occupationally exposed subjects and also larger groups of the general population. A limit of determination of 0.5 ng/L in aqueous solutions and 1 ng/L in urine samples for both elements was achieved, with a precision of about +/- 10% in the concentration range of appr. 10 ng/L. Due to the lack of a suitable reference material, the accuracy of the method was tested by comparing some of the results with those obtained by alpha-spectrometry, especially for U. There was a sufficient agreement on both results.