Determination of lead in hair of exposed gas station workers and in unexposed adults by microwave-aided dissolution of samples and flow injection/atomic absorption spectrometry.

Lead content in head hair of 53 gas station workers together with an equal number of normal controls was determined. Samples of hair were washed with ethanol and water and microwave-aided wet digested prior to the determination of lead by flow injection/atomic absorption spectrometry. The lead content in hair of the gas station workers (48.7 +/- 17.5 micrograms/g) was significantly higher than that of the normal controls (17.2 +/- 8.1 micrograms/g). The effects of washing and sample digestion procedures, head sampling site, hair color, age, smoking habits and duration of exposure to the metal are discussed.