[Assessment of zinc and copper contents in the hair as the test of environmental pollution of Gliwice].

This work presents the zinc and copper content in the hair measured by the flame atomic absorption spectrometric (FAAS). Prior to the FAAS analysis mineralized samples in HNO3+H2O2 (2:1 v/v) solution using microwave technique. Early, all samples washed with water-acetone-water, because grease and dust on the surface of hair may contribute of the element concentrations of hair. Hair samples were collected from people who were not exposed to the contact with copper or zinc. The influence of the variable place of residence, age, sex, was also examined. The mean content of copper was 11.51 +/- 1.27 mg/g dry weight and zinc 146.32 +/- 14.93 mg/g dry weight. The places of residence sex and age were variables that significantly affected copper and zinc concentrations. Men's had more copper and zinc in their hair than women's, whereas hair zinc and copper levels were significantly correlated with the place of the residence and age. The methods were free from interferences, reliable and reproducible. For all metals present in real samples, precision was better than 0.4% (RSD).