Arsenic Content in Inactive Tissue: Human Hair and Nail

Nuclear reactor based Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) method was applied for the determination of arsenic content in human scalp hair, nail and water samples at the south western part of Bangladesh. Average Arsenic (As) content in male and female hair samples were 0.93 μg/g and 3.71 μg/g respectively and also As content in nail samples for male and female were 1.40 μg/g and 2.03 μg/g respectively. A significant correlation in hair and nail for male (r = 0.615) and female (r = 0.728) were observed. This correlation indicated higher affinity to accumulate in external tissue of human body with exposure time. On the other hand, a significant correlation (r = 0.79 and r = 0.72; p = 0.01) was found in female hair and nail As c content in relation to water content (average 0.89 μg/g). Similar association (r = 0.49 and r = 0.53; p = 0.01) was observed in both matrices for male with water content at the significance level of correlation coefficient. More than 20% people of study area were arsenic affected due to highly contamination of groundwater. Arsenic in both matrices were relatively higher, compare to World Health Organization (WHO) recommended value (>1 µg/g). Results indicated that arsenic content in human hair and nail were greater inconsistency perspective to gender variation.