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Hair‐element analysis — still on the fringe
Author(s) -
Morley N.,
Ford R. P. K.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2214.2002.00009.x
Subject(s) - trace element , value (mathematics) , confounding , computer science , prime (order theory) , trace (psycholinguistics) , biochemical engineering , mathematics , statistics , engineering , materials science , metallurgy , linguistics , philosophy , combinatorics , machine learning
Increasing biological interest in minerals has led to the search for reliable methods to quantify body levels of trace elements and toxic metals. Hair has been a prime candidate because of its ease of collection and the possibility that this body tissue might accurately reflect body loads of these substances. A vast amount of research effort has been expended to explore the value of hair‐element analysis. Unfortunately, there are so many confounding factors that influence these measurements that isolated individual results cannot be relied upon. Their current value is in epidemiological studies.