Mercury and its bioconcentration factors in Poison Pax (Paxillus involutus) from various sites in Poland.

Data are presented on total mercury content of Poison Pax from 14 sites across Poland. Mercury was measured by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy (CV-AAS) after nitric (mushrooms) and nitric/sulphuric (soil substrate) acid digestion of the samples. Both the caps, stalks and whole fruiting bodies of Poison Pax exhibited mercury at relatively small concentration and for all sites the median values ranged from 0.01 to 0.10 microg/g dm (the caps) and from 0.01 to 0.10 microg/g dm (the stalks). The arithmetic means of mercury for most of the sites surveyed ranged from 0.01 +/- 0.01 to 0.11 +/- 0.06 microg/g dm (the caps) and from 0.01 +/- 0.01 to 0.11 +/- 0.04 microg/g dm (the stalks). The cap to stalk mercury concentration quotient for 181 fruiting bodies of Poison Pax in this study was 1.4 +/- 0.5 with range from 0.4 to 5.4, and for the particular sites were from 0.6 +/- 0.2 to 2.5 +/- 1.2. The total mercury content of top soil (0-15 cm) layer for most of the sites was within a range from 0.02 +/- 0.01 to 0.05 +/- 0.04 microg/g dm, while from 0.06 +/- 0.02 to 0.07 +/- 0.04 microg/g dm were for two sites in the Tucholskie Forest, and 0.10 +/- 0.04 and 0.09 +/- 0.04 microg/g dm were for an area near the industrial town of Starachowice and for the Kłodzka Hollow in the Sudety Mountains, respectively. Both the caps, stalks or whole fruiting bodies of Poison Pax were characterized by a relatively small bioconcentration factor (BCF) value of mercury with a median value between 0.2 and 3.3, 0.2 and 2.2 and 0.3.