Abstract
Hair provides important information about the body's mineral status. Therefore, we have studied the trace elemental distribution in human hair under different inhalation and ingestion environment using neutron activation analysis (NAA). NAA is a powerful analytical method which can be used successfully to determine trace elements in environmental and biological materials. Total diet and six different herbal medicine were analysed to study ingestion environment. Airborne dust in foundry was analysed and compared with outdoor dust to study inhalation environment. Human hairs of common person, herbal medicine taker and foundry worker were analysed to estimate the trace elemental distribution of people under different inhalation and ingestion environment. Analytical results show that herbal medicines contain higher micronutrients such as Ca, Mg, Mn and Cu that total diet and airborne dust in foundry has high Cr. The concentration of Ca, Mg and Mn in hair of herbal medicine taker is two times higher than in hair of common person and Cr con-centration in hair of foundry worker is about three times higher than in hair of common person. These results show that NAA can be used importantly to monitor human health through biological and environmental samples.
