A European intercomparison of vegetal standard reference materials, based on INAA and some non nuclear spectrochemical techniques

INAA results obtained on 11 vegetal samples proposed as European reference standards, in nutritional, agricultural and analytical studies are reported. A comparison is also reported with the data obtained by 38 European laboratories, by using spectrochemical methods (ICP atomic absorption, X-ray fluorescence, etc.). The usefulness of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) is stressed, particularly when more usual methods are not sensitive enough for microelements that are important markers of toxic and pollutant substances. To this class belong lanthanides and other rare elements (Sc, Cs, Rb), which can be used both as fingerprint of soil provenance and for evaluating the homogeneity of the sample. (author) 8 refs.; 12 tabs