The role of human hairs in health and disease with special reference to environmental exposures.

Increasing use of chemicals and the resultant human exposure have put pressure on environmentalists to find new ways of monitoring human chemical uptake. Examination of hair is emerging as a useful tool for the assessment of exposure loads for certain toxicants and pollutants and can be effectively used for monitoring and preventing environmental and occupational morbidity in specific population groups. Hair is an easily available biological tissue which, because of its typical morphology, reflects disease conditions within the body. It also provides a permanent record of the trace elements associated with normal and abnormal metabolism, as well as those elements assimilated from the environment.