Search results for " Human hair"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Trace elements in hair of urban schoolboys: a diagnostic tool in environmental risk assessment.
2011
Hair analysis may represent a means to quantify the relationship between human exposure to metal contamination and the environmental conditions of workplaces or residence sites. Hair are stable and their composition does not change over short time period. Furthermore, sampling procedure is very easy, requires no specific professional skills, is painless and non-invasive. 334 hair samples were collected from Caucasian children 11-13 years old, of both genders, without colored or treated hair, living in several Sicilian towns characterized by different geochemical environments: urban (Palermo), volcanic (Etna), mining area (Antillo-Fiumedinisi), industrial site (Pace del Mela), uncontamined a…
Trace elements in scalp hair of children chronically exposed to volcanic activity (Mt. Etna, Italy)
2014
Abstract The aim of this survey was to use scalp hair as a biomonitor to evaluate the environmental exposure to metals and metalloids of schoolchildren living around the Mt. Etna area, and to verify whether the degree of human exposure to trace elements is subject to changes in local environmental factors. Twenty trace elements were determined in 376 samples of scalp hair from schoolboys (11–13 years old) of both genders, living in ten towns located around the volcanic area of Mt. Etna (Sicily). The results were compared with those (215 samples) from children living in areas of Sicily characterized by a different geological setting (reference site). As, U and V showed much higher concentrat…
Can we consider a natural environment always of high quality and adequate to protect population from potential risks of health threats?
2013
The question posed in the title arise because the current knowledge suggests that there are important, both beneficial and adverse, relationships between natural environment and human health. The human body obtains metals and metalloids from diet, some of which are derived from local foodstuffs and municipal water supplies, and it is therefore plausible that areas characterized by various types of bedrock and superficial materials, upon which food is grown and water drained, provide different availabilities of trace elements. The present study aimed at elucidating whether the degree of human exposure to trace elements is subject to changes in local environmental factors. This hypothesis was…
Influence of industrial activity on metal and metalloid contents in scalp hair of adolescents
2015
Petrochemical industries represent a controversial although important economical resource. They offer a great deal of job opportunities producing also a development of several areas. However, such kind of industrial plants are responsible for the change of the environmental background through the emission of toxic pollutants such as metalsmetalloids and organic compounds. People living in cities close to such industrial plants are particularly exposed to a severe environmental decline, which implies the deterioration of the quality of air, soil, water and food with the consequent human health concerns. The municipalities of Gela (GL) and Pace del Mela (PM), located respectively along the Me…
Exposure to trace elements by hair mineral analysis. Mining , volcanic and urban areas
2015
Concerns about the effects of environmental exposure to metals and metalloids on human health have driven the scientific community to find reliable tools and methodologies for assessing the impact of emission of toxic metals from anthropogenic sources or through natural anomalous levels of metals in water, soil and air. Biological monitoring has been extensively employed with this end in view and blood, urine, hair and nails are the biological materials mostly collected and analyzed for the levels of multiple metals. With respect to blood and urine, whose metal concentrations decrease rapidly after the exposure period, hair and nails appear to be of greater value in evaluating past and cont…