This new, self-contained volume covers in a critical, exhaustive, and in-depth manner the progress in AAS determinations of 55 chemical elements in 42 individual chapters, with an emphasis on the latest instrumental and methodological developments. These include Zeeman background correction, the Stabilized Temperature Platform Atomizer (STPA), flow-injection and continuous-flow approaches, slurry and solid sampling, efficient chemical modification, on-line sample pretreatment/enrichment, speciation, availability of QC materials, alternative analytical techniques, and more.A key to this vast application area is provided by well-organized tabulated information, including outlines of 782 selected AAS procedures for analysis of blood, serum, urine, hair, nail, teeth, tissues, food, and other relevant biological specimens. More than 2100 AAS papers are included in a unique bibliography of 3223 up-to-date references spanning the last 13 years. "Extremely thorough...indispensable to anyone concerned with the analysis of biological samples...it should have a place on the bookshelf of anyone working in the field of AAS."- Kenneth W. Jackson, State University of New York, Albany, in Abstracts in Social Gerontology: Current Literature on Aging