e n v i r o n m e n t a l t o x i c o l o g y a n d p h a r m a c o l o g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 727–734 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com jo u r n al hom ep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/etap Exposure to nickel by hair mineral analysis Izabela Michalak a,* , Marcin Mikulewicz b , Katarzyna Chojnacka a , Paulina Wolowiec a , Agnieszka Saeid a , Henryk Górecki a a Institute of Inorganic Technology and Mineral Fertilizers, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland b Department of Dentofacial Orthopeadics and Orthodontics, Medical University of Wroclaw, Poland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 4 June 2012 Received in revised form 27 September 2012 Accepted 30 September 2012 Available online 8 October 2012 Keywords: Scalp hair Nickel Hair mineral analysis Lifestyle Dietary habits Environmental exposure a b s t r a c t The aim of the present work was to investigate the exposure to nickel from various sources by investigation of mineral composition of human scalp hair. The research was carried out on hair sampled from subjects, including 87 males and 178 females (22 ± 2 years). The samples of hair were analyzed by ICP–OES. The effect of several factors on nickel content in hair was examined: lifestyle habits (e.g. hair coloring, hair spray, hair straighteners, hair drier, drugs); dietary factors (e.g. yoghurts, blue cheese, lettuce, lemon, mushroom, egg, butter); other (e.g. solarium, cigarette smoking, tap water pipes, tinned food, PVC foil, photocopier, amalgam ﬁlling). These outcomes were reached by linking the results of nickel level in hair with the results of questionnaire survey. Basing on the results it can be concluded that exposure to nickel ions can occur from different sources: lifestyle, eating habits and environmental exposure. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Exposure to nickel signiﬁcantly increased in 20th century, because of its common applications (Vahter et al., 2007). Typ- ically, nickel is applied in metallurgical processes for the production of alloys, among others most common is stain- less steel used in the production of various devices, dishes and packaging for the food industry (Cempel and Nikel, 2006; Sharma, 2007). Nickel is used in the production of medical tools and implants and in electroplating e.g. nickel plating. Other applications include the production of batteries, coins, jewellery and as the catalyst of hydrogenating in the produc- tion of trans fats of plant oil (Cempel and Nikel, 2006; Hayes, 1997; Sharma, 2007). ∗ Corresponding author at: Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-372 Wrocław, Poland. Tel.: +48 71 3203793. E-mail address: izabela.michalak@pwr.wroc.pl (I. Michalak). The release of nickel into the environment occurs from various sources: metallurgy and reﬁning industries, coal com- bustion, diesel and fuel oil, sewage. Nickel and its compounds are bioaccumulated by human body by different routes – inhalation, ingestion and dermal (Cempel and Nikel, 2006). The average content of Ni in the human body is 7 g/kg. Nickel is accumulated mostly in bones, parenchymal organs, myocardium, skin, hair (Kabata-Pendias and Pendias, 1999). The latter matrice was presented as the most sensitive biomarker of human exposure to toxic metals (Grabeklis et al., 2011). However, the content of Ni in hair was inﬂuenced by different factors related which has an impact on interpreta- tion (age, sex) and exposure (diet, using metal cookware and environmental) (Sukumar and Subramanian, 2007; Afridi et al., 2011a). 1382-6689/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2012.09.015