Human nail usage as a Bio-indicator in contamination monitoring of heavy metals in Dizajabaad, Zanjan province-Iran

Journal of Environmental Health Science Engineering

Behzad Taghilou²  Vahid Bijnavand²  Abbasali Zamani¹  Abdolhossein Parizanganeh¹ 

[1] Environmental Science Research Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45371-38791, Iran;Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45371-38791, Iran

关键词: Heavy metals;    Finger nail;    Dizajabaad village;    Bio-indicator;    Biomonitoring;   

Others  :  1175274
DOI  :  10.1186/s40201-014-0147-x

 received in 2014-05-02, accepted in 2014-12-06,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Due to pedogeochemical background and anthropogenic sources, heavy metal contamination of soil is a widespread problem in some parts of Zanjan province located in North West Iran. In this study an affected area located near National Iranian Lead and Zinc Company (NILZ) was selected for detailed study.

Methodology

Thirty soil samples and eighteen leaf samples were collected and analyzed for heavy metal contamination by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Both soil and plant samples were found to be basically polluted by Pb (72.60 and 97.11), Zn (546.47 and 166.61), and Cd (1.80 and 1.55) mg. kg⁻¹ respectively. High concentrations of these elements in soil and plant species signifies possible health risks to humans. The distribution maps drawn using Arc GIS (10) show high concentrations of these toxic metals around Dizajabaad village. To assess vulnerability and health risks of metal concentrations in human bodies’ twenty nine fingernail samples were also collected from people living in this village.

Results and discussion

Analysis for different heavy metal contents of nail samples reveals very high levels of the same toxic elements (Pb = 15.15, Cd = 1.18, As = 15.47, Zn = 68.46 and Ni = 18.22 mg. kg⁻¹) compared with samples collected from an unaffected area and available values indicated in the literature. Further, high concentration of heavy metals in the nail samples suggests long term exposure of inhabitants to these toxic metals.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Parizanganeh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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