Trace elements analysis in hair strand of cooks chronically exposed to indoor air pollution in restaurants of Lhasa, Tibet: preliminary results

Abstract

Considering the effect of environmental exposure and contamination, six trace elements including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in scalp hair samples of cooks at Lhasa city, southern Tibetan Plateau were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Potential of human hair in indicating the exposure and contamination has been assessed. Concentrations of these elements were found in the rank order of Zn > Cu > Cr > Pb > As > Cd, with concentrations of Zn and Cu exceeding 10 μg/g (Zn = 208.01 μg/g; Cu = 23.60 μg/g). All the elements, especially Cu and Cr concentration in the hair samples were higher than those of the control, indicating higher indoor air pollution posing higher health risk. Cu, Cr, and Zn concentrations were higher than those of other areas (e.g. Turkey, Poland and Italy), implying that these metals might accumulate in the body and affect the health of cooks. No significant difference between genders was observed. Significantly positive correlations for several elements: Cr and As, Cr and Cd, Cu and Pb, As and Pb were obtained, which were different from the control, indicating heavy exposures to these metals through cooking activities. Our observations suggested that human scalp hair could be a useful biomarker to assess the intensity of heavy metals exposure as well as the indoor air pollution to cooks in Tibet.

Forensic analysis by solid sampling electrothermal vaporization coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

“…Hair is a small but stable substance, serving as a permanent record of an individual's diet 76 and varying with factors such as ethnicity, gender, environment, and working conditions. [77][78][79][80] Unlike several other biological specimens, hair is a metabolic end product, 81 and so it can be retroactively studied to discern long-term patterns of nutrition or environmental exposure. Hair is also largely affected by the secretions of sweat glands in the body, which are: eccrine, apocrine, sebaceous, and epidermis.…”

Pot study using Chlorophytum comosum plants to biomonitor PAH levels in domestic kitchens

“…While active sampling has been widely applied to characterise the risk of PM and especially PAH emissions during cooking, biomonitoring studies have been mostly restricted to human samples (Li et al 2011, Oliveira et al 2017, Murawski et al 2020. Neupane et al (2019), e.g., used hair samples of cooks to estimate health risk of chronic exposure in restaurants. Considering non-human samples, spider webs were used in the studies of Rutkowski et al (2019) and Rybak et al (2019) to monitor indoor PAH levels.…”