Portable XRF as a rapid determination tool to detect ppm levels of Ni, Zn, As, Se and Pb in human toenails: A South India case study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Environ Sci Technol
• Personal Author:
  Bhatia, Mayuri ; Specht, Aaron J. ; Ramya, Vallabhuni ; Sulaiman, Dahy ; Konda, Manasa ; Balcom, Prentiss ; Sunderland, Elsie M. ; Qureshi, Asif
• Description:
  Chronic exposure to inorganic pollutants adversely affects human health. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is the most common method used for trace metal(loid) analysis of human biomarkers. However, it leads to sample destruction, generation of secondary waste, and significant recurring costs. Portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments can rapidly and nondestructively determine low concentrations of metal(loid)s. In this work, we evaluated the applicability of portable XRF as a rapid method for analyzing trace metal(loid)s in toenail samples from three populations (| = 97) near the city of Chennai, India. A Passing-Bablok regression analysis of results from both methods revealed that there was no proportional bias among the two methods for nickel (measurement range ∼25 to 420 mg/kg), zinc (10 to 890 mg/kg), and lead (0.29 to 4.47 mg/kg). There was a small absolute bias between the two methods. There was a strong proportional bias (slope = 0.253, 95% CI: 0.027, 0.614) between the two methods for arsenic (below detection to 3.8 mg/kg) and for selenium when the concentrations were lower than 2 mg/kg. Limits of agreement between the two methods using Bland-Altman analysis were derived for nickel, zinc, and lead. Overall, a suitably calibrated and evaluated portable XRF shows promise in making high-throughput assessments at population scales.
• Subjects:
  Humans Lead Nails Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission X-Rays Zinc
• Source:
  Environ Sci Technol. 55(19):13113-13121
• Pubmed ID:
  34529917
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8582015
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  K01 OH011648/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; K01OH011648/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/ ; P42 ES030990/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  India
• Volume:
  55
• Issue:
  19
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1bc861630d183085b9610b21044b9fc2165e45d7d80c96c50e456fc9f1c78086
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/111702/cdc_111702_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 851.14 KB ]