Hair-biomonitoring of organic pollutants

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) Vol. 72; no. 8; pp. 1103 - 1111
• Main Author: Schramm, K.-W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Analysis; Biological and medical sciences; Biomonitoring; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental Pollutants - analysis; Environmental Pollutants - isolation & purification; Environmental pollutants toxicology; Female; General aspects; Hair - chemistry; Hair analysis; Humans; Limitations; Male; Medical sciences; Organic contaminations; Sex Factors; Toxicology; Limitations; Biomonitoring; Organic contaminations; Hair analysis; Analysis; Human; Review; Contamination; Biological monitoring; Hair (head); Pollutant; Pollution; Non invasive method; Quantitative analysis; Organic compounds
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2008.04.017

This report reviews past research on hair analysis development for organic contaminants from the point of view of analytical procedures, successful applications and their limitations. For the past 20 years, hair analysis for organic pollutants has received more and more attention, since it is non-invasive, easily available and ethically not prioritized. New methods such as SFE, SPME and INAA have been developed to make the analysis more accurate and reliable. Furthermore, the correlation of contamination levels between hair samples and ambient air or internal tissues has been found by hair analysis and short-term and long-term exposure assessment in combination. However, there are still some limitations of hair analysis to be a validated risk assessment tool for many compounds. Some limitations had been of the past, some have not been fully investigated and need still further study. In this way, hair analysis can be the key to successfully biomonitor organic contaminations.