Parts per Million The concentration of mercury found in fish varies among region and type of fish. Large predator fish such as swordfish can contain more than 1 ppm, which is considered too high by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards. Eating fish containing this level of mercury is

Question

Parts per Million

The concentration of mercury found in fish varies among region and type of fish. Large predator fish such as swordfish can contain more than 1 ppm, which is considered too high by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards. Eating fish containing this level of mercury is a risk to developing nervous systems in unborn babies and children. In a healthy adult, mercury is removed from the body naturally, but slowly. If a 500.0-g piece of swordfish contains 3.0 × 10^–4 g of mercury, what is the concentration of mercury in this fish in units of parts per million (ppm)?

Accepted Answer

In this problem we want to go from the mass of mercury and the mass of the fish to parts per million:

[latex]\fbox{Mass of mercury and mass of fish}\overset{?}{\longrightarrow } \fbox{Parts per million}[/latex]

To determine the concentration in ppm, we take the ratio of the mass of the mercury to the mass of the fish and then multiply by 1 million (10⁶):

[latex] ext{Parts per million}= \frac{ ext{grams of mercury}}{ ext{grams of fish}} imes 10^{6}[/latex]

We must check to make sure that the mass values are both given in the same units—grams in this case. We then substitute the mass values into the equation:

[latex] ext{Parts per million} = \frac{3.0 imes 10^{-4} ext{mercury}}{500.0 ext{of fish}} imes 10^{6}= 0.60 ext{ppm}[/latex]

Question 11.5: Parts per Million The concentration of mercury found in fish...

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