Abstract
Due to its ability to avidly accumulate methyl mercury from blood, scalp hair has been widely used as a biological monitor for human exposure. The question arises that hair may also be an important route of elimination of methyl mercury from the body. Taking original publications and reviews on the physiology of hair (including growth by weigh and density) and on the deposition parameters for methyl mercury in the body (including the hair to blood concentration ratio of methyl mercury), one can calculate the rate of elimination of methyl mercury in hair. The result indicates that hair accounts for only a small fraction, less than 10%, of the total elimination of methyl mercury from the body. This relationship is expected to be maintained at every level when the dominant form of mercury is methyl. Other species of mercury I eliminated by hair even at a lower rate.
Published Version
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