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A study was undertaken to assess the level of selected trace elements namely, As, Bi, Sb and Se in airborne particulate matter collected on ash-free glass-fibre filters from urban and industrial areas of Argentina. For sample digestion, a simple acid treatment with HCl + HF is proposed with the aim to minimize contamination and reduce sample treatment steps. A flow injection-hydride generation system in combination with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was used. While, Se and Bi could be determined directly from the digest, As and Sb needed a pre-reduction with KI, and H 3 BO 3 to avoid the interference of F À ions that may cause losses via volatile compounds such as AsF 3 and Sb(V) complexes. Limits of detection (3s) of 0.3 ng m À3 for As; 0.09 ng m À3 for Bi, and 0.1 ng m À3 for Sb and Se were achieved. Precision resulted in better than 6.1% accuracy for all the elements determined. Accuracy test was assessed by means of the certified reference material, NIST 1648 (urban particulate matter).

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