Determination of Mercury in Living and Non-living Systems Cinnabar mining for the acquisition of mercury was one of the leading industries in Arkansas from 1931 into the mid-1940s. Mercury is a persistent bioaccumulative toxin, thus the focus of this project is to assess the regional impact of historic mining upon waters, soils, and organisms of southwest Arkansas by evaluating mercury content. Cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry is the method used to determine mercury levels in samples, which are treated in accordance with EPA-established protocols.
