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The establishment of EVISA is funded by the EU through the Fifth Framework Programme (G7RT- CT- 2002- 05112).

Supporters of EVISA includes:

Certified reference materials for mercury in marine animal tissues

Monomethylmercury compounds are of great concern, as these highly toxic compounds are formed biotically by microorganisms in sediment and algae in sea water and/or abiotically. Once it is formed, methylmercury is bioaccumulated and biomagnified in the aquatic food chains, thus resulting in exposure levels among fish-eating populations, often at levels exceeding what is regarded as a safe level.

It is therefore of primary interest to have samples from animal species within the food chain at different trophic level.

The main issues to be controlled during the analysis of biological tissues for the speciation analysis of mercury are:

quantitativeness of extraction of the species from the tissue
absence of artificial formation of methylmercury during the analytical procedure
control of contamination mainly for inorganic mercury
control of the derivatization yield
avoidance of ion-exchange and adsorption problems on GC column packing materials

CRMs play a major role in the development and validation of methods and for quality control. The following certified reference materials (CRMs) are available for the speciation of mercury species in marine animal tissues:

Supplier	Name	Material	Certificate
IRMM	ERM-CE464	Tuna fish muscle	Total mercury, methylmercury
IAEA	IAEA 407	Sea fish tissue	(Ag),Al, As, Br, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, MeHg, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, Sr, V, Zn
NIST	SRM 1566 b	Oyster tissue	Ca, Cl, Mg, K, Na, S, Al, As, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, MeHg, Ni, Rb, Se, Ag, Th, V, Zn
NIST	SRM 1974 B	Mussel tissue	Hg, methylmercury, Organics
NIST	SRM 2976	Mussel tissue	As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Se, Zn, Total Hg, MeHg
NIST	SRM 2977	Mussel tissue	Cd, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni, Sr, PAHs, PCBs, MeHg
NIST	SRM 1946	Freshwater fish
NRCC	DORM-2	Dogfish muscle	Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, Se, Ag, Tl, Sn, Zn, MeHg
NRCC	DORM-3	Fish protein	As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Pb, Hg, Ni, Sn, Zn, MeHg
NRCC	DOLT-3	Dogfish liver	As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Hg, Ni, Se, Ag, (MeHg)
NRCC	DOLT-4	Dogfish liver	As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Hg, Ni, Se, Ag, Zn, MeHg
NRCC	LUTS-1	Non-defatted lobster tissue	As, Cd, Ca, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mg, Mn, Ni, K, Se, Ag, Sr, Zn, [Hg], [MeHg]
NRCC	TORT-2	Lobster tissue	As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, Mo, Ni, Se, Sr, Sn, V, Zn, MeHg

* () =information value only, []= original certification no longer valid
NB:! click on the suppliers name to reach his website, click on the material name for a link to the report, click on the certified species for a link to the certificate