Technical Bulletin No. 0912: Potential for Metals Contamination from Grinding Bark or Wood Samples and a Comparison Between Dry and Wet Ashing Sample Preparations

Experiments were performed to characterize the potential for metals contamination when grinding wood or bark samples in standard laboratory mills. Additional experiments comparing dry ashing and wet chemical (acid) digestions for determining metals in bark were also performed. When kiln-dried maple was ground to 5 mm, iron and chromium concentrations increased by 31 ppm and 0.