Masih Amit, Taneja Ajay, Singhvi Raj
Environmental Research Lab, Department of Chemistry, St. Andrew's College, Gorakhpur, India.
Department of Chemistry, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra, India.
Environ Geochem Health. 2016 Feb;38(1):145-56. doi: 10.1007/s10653-015-9698-8. Epub 2015 Apr 3.
Human hair is frequently used as a bioindicator of mercury exposure. Mercury (Hg) has for centuries been a useful metal in a variety of applications. Unfortunately, this usefulness is counterbalanced by its neurotoxicological health impact. The US Environmental Protection Agency recommends keeping the hair Hg level <1.0 µg/g. Therefore, an investigation has been performed in order to ascertain the hair Hg levels among the people living at the terai belt of North India. Hair samples were collected from 111 individuals and were placed in an identified plastic bag, stapled to prevent the shift of the hair strand. Samples were analyzed by combustion, gold amalgamation, atomic absorption spectrometry (C-GA-AAS). The mean Hg level in hair was 0.28 µg/g for the whole group ranging from 0.0012 to 1.9091 µg/g. The mean hair Hg levels were 0.16 µg/g for men and 0.12 µg/g for women, indicating that men had higher hair Hg levels than women. Total hair Hg was found to be significantly associated with age, gender and fish consumption frequency. 98 % of the total sample had hair Hg concentrations less than 1.0 µg/g, i.e, within safe dose, whereas only 2 % had Hg concentrations greater than 1.0 µg/g, thereby exceeding the safe dose.
人类头发常被用作汞暴露的生物指标。几个世纪以来，汞（Hg）在各种应用中都是一种有用的金属。不幸的是，这种有用性被其对神经毒理学的健康影响所抵消。美国环境保护局建议头发中的汞含量保持在<1.0微克/克。因此，为了确定印度北部特莱地区居民头发中的汞含量，开展了一项调查。从111个人那里收集了头发样本，并将其放入一个标明身份的塑料袋中，用订书钉固定以防止发缕移动。样本通过燃烧、金汞齐化、原子吸收光谱法（C-GA-AAS）进行分析。整个群体头发中的汞平均含量为0.28微克/克，范围在0.0012至1.9091微克/克之间。男性头发汞平均含量为0.16微克/克，女性为0.12微克/克，这表明男性头发中的汞含量高于女性。发现头发中汞的总量与年龄、性别和鱼类消费频率显著相关。98%的总样本头发汞浓度低于1.0微克/克，即在安全剂量范围内，而只有2%的汞浓度高于1.0微克/克，从而超过了安全剂量。
