Effects of Local Industry on Heavy Metals Content in Human Hair

摘要

In the present work hair mineral analysis of 110 individuals was canned out to determine environmental exposure based on the distance from a subject's residence to a pollutant source. The subjects were asked to fill in a questionnaire concerning their place of living in the city of Wroclaw (lower Silesia, Poland), which was divided in 12 sectors. The content of minerals in hair was determined by ICP-OES and ICP-MS technique in a laboratory certified by the Polish Centre for Accreditation and ILAC-MRA (No. AB 696). The results were elaborated statistically. Each person served as the experimental unit. Post-hoc comparisons were made by Tukey's test and the Spjotvoll/Stolin test. Results were considered significantly different when p<0.1. The differences in the content of As were statistically significant between Ⅳ-Ⅴ regions (p=0.0182), Ⅳ-Ⅶ (p=0.0720), and Ⅳ-Ⅻ (p=0.0586). In the case of Cd, statistically significant differences were found between Ⅱ and Ⅻ region (p=0.0377). Hair has been found to be a valuable indicator of environmental pollution in Wroclaw. The highest content of Al was found in sector Ⅶ, As - Ⅳ, Cd - Ⅱ, Hg Ⅷ, Ni - Ⅴ, and Pb - Ⅸ. The explanation could be the vicinity to a heat and power generating plant and a non-ferrous metals plant or other industrial units, as well as interactions between elements in a human organism. Additionally, statistically significant differences between Ni content (p=0.0591) in hair of males and females were found. These results showed that hair mineral content reflected exposure to elements from the environment.