Heavy metal concentrations in the hair samples

Abstract

Since the industrial revolution, human activity has continued to cause significant pollution all over the world. Some of the various pollutants released into the environment take the form of heavy metals. These substances present a major threat to the biosphere by entering the food chain and causing toxic effects on living organisms. Our interest has been turned to the heavy metal exposure of Csepel residents in Budapest. Csepel is the site of the Weiss Manfred Steel and Metal Works, which has had various pollution problems over the years. In the present work, human hair was chosen as a tool to detect the above-mentioned heavy metal pollution. The concentrations of some heavy metals (copper, selenium, iron, zinc, cadmium, manganese) was measured in the hair of Csepel residents and compared them with the results of a control group, namely people living in “Erzsébet” district. It is a known fact, that hair testing is a good indicator of heavy metal pollution, because it is simple to perform without internal intervention and does not exposure the person being tested. The collected hair samples were cut into 2-3 mm pieces. The samples were washed, dried, digested and finally the heavy metal content was measured using a Unicam 923 QZ AA spectrometer. Statistical evaluation was done by SPSS 14.0. The results showed that the heavy metal concentrations of the Csepel hair samples were on average higher than the control samples for copper, iron, manganese, cadmium and selenium.