Accumulation level and content variation of heavy metals in people's hair in the environmental contamination area of a gold mine area

The harmful effect of heavy metal contamination on people's health in the mining area is an important environmental problem that has aroused much discussion. This paper reported a case study of village A suffering from heavy metal pollution. Hairs were collect at random, and then heavy metal concentrations were analyzed during 2005 and 2009. The analytical results were compared with the analytical results of the samples collected at village B suffering from no contamination. The ratios show that the average heavy metal concentrations at different age intervals show stochastic law. Average ratios of Hg, Pb and Cd were 4.83, 6.68 and 4.16 respectively during 2009. The cumulative single indexes of Hg, Pb and Cd were the highest in the adult male, and the ratio sorting order of heavy metals from lager to lower are total index (7.81), boy (7.20), adult female (6.75) and girl (4.20). Generally, the heavy metal concentrations are continually increased in the contamination area, and there is a good relationship between the high heavy metal content and people's health risk. It is therefore concluded that the contamination has exerted a serious threat to people's health in the gold mining area.