Portable X-ray Fluorescence as a Rapid Determination Tool to Detect Parts per Million Levels of Ni, Zn, As, Se, and Pb in Human Toenails: A South India Case Study

Bhatia, Mayuri and Specht, Aaron J. and Ramya, Vallabhuni and Sulaiman, Dahy and Konda, Manasa and Balcom, Prentiss and Sunderland, Elsie M. and Qureshi, Asif (2021) Portable X-ray Fluorescence as a Rapid Determination Tool to Detect Parts per Million Levels of Ni, Zn, As, Se, and Pb in Human Toenails: A South India Case Study. Environmental Science & Technology, 55 (19). pp. 1-9. ISSN 0013-936X

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Abstract

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 (n= 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. © 2021 American Chemical Society

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IITH Creators:

IITH Creators	ORCiD
Qureshi, Asif	UNSPECIFIED

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

This work was supported by the Harvard Global Institute (HGI), and National Institutes of Occupation Safety and Health grant no. K01OH011648. Partial support for work at Harvard was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Center (P42ES030990). We thank Arul Prakash and Manimozhi Selvaraj for assistance during field work.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

high correlation; ICP−MS; portable XRF; toenails

Subjects:

Civil Engineering

Divisions:

Department of Civil Engineering

Depositing User:

. LibTrainee 2021

Date Deposited:

07 Sep 2022 14:42

Last Modified:

07 Sep 2022 14:42