Evaluation of the reliability analyzing hair by arc atomic emission spectroscopy

This paper focuses on the reliability of analyzing hair by arc atomic emission spectroscopy with multichannel analyzer emission spectra compared with the alternative procedure of determining chemical elements in biological fluids by mass spec-trometry with inductively coupled plasma. To monitor the possibility of matrix effects on conducting the spectral analysis of hair, the IR-spectroscopy and X-ray analysis were used. The anionic composition for hair ash residue was determined by IR-spectroscopy. The main absorption band lies within 1450-1410 cm^-1 due to the sulfate ions SO3^2-, which also cause the absorption band of878 cm^-1 and 712 cm^-1. A small bending at 1114.3 cm^-1, 679.8 cm^-1 is due to SO4 ^2- ions. We can conclude that the dominant anions in the hair ash are CO3 ^2-> SO4 ^2-> PO4 ^3-. XRD showed that the rest of the hair ash is mainly represented by the two crystalline phases: CaSO4 (65%) and СаСО3 (29%), SiO2 (6%). The set of methods for determining the main components in the ash residues of hair allows to establish close to the true composition of the mineral part of the sample, that none of them separately provides complete and necessary information about the composition. Interlaboratory comparative tests were conducted by the following criteria: evaluating a preliminary result according to Q-criterion, evaluating equal accuracy of the samples obtained by the Fisher criterion, estimating the accuracy by comparing two average values of the Student's t-criterion. On the basis of the metrological evaluation, we conclude on the insignificance of the discrepancies in the results for the methods evaluated, which in turn allows us to draw a conclusion on the reliability of the laboratory tests carried out by arc spectroscopy. A new technique using arc AES analysis with MAES allows to determine rapidly the chemical composition of hairs with high accuracy. It also allows to compare the obtained data with reference values for different gender and age as well as to identify significant deviations. By means of hair elemental analysis, the authors found the hygienic indicators reflecting environmental and climatogeographic factors. In future, it is planned to perform this type of validation tests conducted by arc atomic emission spectroscopy in comparison with neutron activation analysis, atomic absorption, stripping voltammetry, and other methods. The in-field evaluation of the methods tested was implemented in the city of Kyzyl, Tyva Republic, and in the village of Parabel, Tomsk region. The survey results for the selected regions show a certain elemental imbalance among the residents of Kyzyl and Parabel. The authors determined the regional specificity of accumulating Ca, Mg, Al, Ba, Pb, Zn, and Sr for Kyzyl and Ba, Al, Ag, Fe, P, Mn, and Zn for Parabel.

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