Dear all,

I think Leo Sternberg has a strong point there. I do not remember to have
seen any reporting of traces of this nickel tetracarbonyl in the
literature, but that certainly does not mean it does not exist. Special if
it is a very minor component it might have been neglected because it does
not interfere with the isotopic signature, but indeed can be very hazardous
for health as pointed out by Leo.
I like to hear about this problem very much too, and invite everybody who
has any comment on this to do this by way of the list - there certainly
will be more analysts around working with the mentioned systems (or others
with similar problems?) who are very interested about this. They should be
anyway, I think, since a health-safity situation is questioned here.

Best wishes to all,

Pier de Groot
Temporary address (until June 4):
Professeur Invote
Departement de Geologie
Universite Jean Monet
23 rue du Docteur Paul Michelon
F-42023 Saint Etienne Cedex 2
France

Permanent address (after June 10):
Economic Geology Research Unit
Department of Geology
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3
2050 Johannesburg
South Africa
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

For info on my: "Handbook on Stable Isotope Anlytical Techniques", visit
the WEB-page:
http://www.icon.co.za/~pagroot/index.html  or if finding problems with your
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http://www.icon.co.za/~pagroot/index_1.html