title: Levels of five metals in male hair from urban and rural areas of Chongqing, China.
abstract: Heavy metals were measured by flame atomic absorption in male hair from residents in urban and rural areas in Chongqing. The median values of the Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were 2.90, 23.9, 9.31, 39.3 and 203 μg/g in urban areas and 0.84, 13.4, 5.56, 14.5 and 169 μg/g in rural area, respectively. The levels of Cd, Ni and Pb both in urban and rural areas lie at the high end of the worldwide figures. The differences in heavy metal distribution pattern indicated that there were more sources of Cd and Pb in urban areas. The levels of Cd were increasing along with the growth of age except for the aged people in urban areas, and no significant relationship was observed between the levels of the heavy metal and the age. It is noticed that the hair of smokers exhibited more heavy metal levels than that of non-smokers both in urban and rural areas. In addition, the hair metal levels of the smokers and non-smokers in urban areas were significantly higher than those in rural area, respectively. Significant pairwise correlations (p < 0.01) were observed among Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb in rural area and only between Cu and Ni and between Pb and Ni in urban areas, indicating the elements in these two areas might originate from different sources. The elevated levels of Cd, Pb and Ni implied that the residents both in urban and rural areas might be at high risk of toxic metal exposure, especially for the children.
authors.affiliation: College of Resources and Environment Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.|Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region's Eco-Environment (Ministry of Education), College of Resources and Environment, Department of Environment Science and Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.|Chongqing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Chongqing, 400716, China.
authors.forename: Ming-Jing
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: College of Resources and Environment Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China. sqwei@swu.edu.cn.|Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region's Eco-Environment (Ministry of Education), College of Resources and Environment, Department of Environment Science and Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China. sqwei@swu.edu.cn.|Chongqing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Chongqing, 400716, China. sqwei@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shi-Qiang
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Resources and Environment Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Resources and Environment Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Resources and Environment Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
authors.forename: Deng-Xiang
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012424:Rural Population; D012907:Smoking; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy
keywords: Cadmium; China; Copper; Lead; Male hair; Metals; Nickel; Urban and rural areas