Estimation of the Frequency and Time of Human Exposure to Arsenic by Single Hair Analysis

Bing Li, Weicong Xu, Ruxin Luo, Shaojie Zhuo, Xueyan Guo, Kuan Cheng, Keming Yun () and Dong Ma ()
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Bing Li: School of Forensic Medicine, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China
Weicong Xu: Jinan University Center of Forensic Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510630, China
Ruxin Luo: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China
Shaojie Zhuo: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China
Xueyan Guo: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China
Kuan Cheng: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China
Keming Yun: School of Forensic Medicine, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China
Dong Ma: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-9

Abstract: Arsenic (As) and its compounds are widely used in many applications. Long-term exposure to As can cause acute and chronic poisoning. In severe cases, it can lead to adverse effects, such as gene mutation, cell cancer and fetal malformation. The objective of this study was to accurately estimate As exposure frequency and time. Quantitative analysis of As in single hairs obtained from APL (acute promyelocytic leukemia) patients treated with As 2 O 3 was performed by LA-ICP-MS. An informative As concentration distribution profile of single hair was applied to estimate the As exposure frequency and time. As exposure frequency was estimated according to the number of As concentration peaks. As exposure time was estimated according to the hair growth length in combination with the hair growth rate. The validation results demonstrate that this method was more efficient than the traditional method; compared with the traditional method, which provides estimates in months, our model shortened the As exposure time estimate to the range of a few days, which considerably improved the inference accuracy. Therefore, these results can be used for forensic toxicology studies, environmental exposure monitoring, etc.

Keywords: arsenic; LA-ICP-MS; single hair; hair growth rate; frequency; exposure time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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