Lead in Hair of Children with Chronic Lead Poisoning

Abstract

THE present study explores the quantitative analysis of lead in hair as an aid in the diagnosis of chronic, mild or subacute lead poisoning in children. Hair, one of the lesser known sites for lead accumulation, concentrates more lead per unit weight than any other tissue or body fluid, including bone, blood and urine.1 2 3 4 In healthy persons the concentration of lead in scalp hair may be from two to five times greater than in bone, about ten to fifty times higher than in blood, and from a hundred to five hundred times greater than that excreted in urine.5 Hair presents . . .