Organ Distribution of Heavy Metals in Autopsy Material from Normal Korean.

To obtain the usual value of aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium and zinc in the normal human body, the amounts of these 16 metals were determined in 89 male and 61 female Korean cadavers, whose ages ranged from 12 to 87 years.Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry was used for analysis of heavy metals in 9 autopsied human organs (liver, kidney, cerebrum, heart, spleen, lung, bone, hair and nail).Distribution of arsenic, nickel, selenium, lead and vanadium in the human body were almost uniform.Cadmium, mercury, manganese, molybdenum, tin and zinc were found in large quantities in the metabolic organs, whereas the concentrations of aluminum, chromium and silicon were greatest in the tissues exposed to the exterior.Key words ---Korean, tissue, heavy metal, concentration, ICP-AES, microwave digestion diseases, and the relationship between environmental pollution and the heavy metal.In addition, the estimate of the normal range of heavy metals in human body tissue has an important role as baseline data.Many investigations have been done so far in developed countries to determine these values, and the monitoring has been continued through several decades.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Compared to this, in Korea, the normal range of concentration of heavy metal in Korean tissues has scarcely been investigated.For our country, where industrial development has been rapid, the amount of heavy metal accumulated in the human body from the polluted environment is expected to increase.So, basic data like the normal range of heavy metals in the human body as a basis for recommending changes in living conditions such as the environment and diet need to be determined immediately.Thus, the normal ranges of heavy metal concentration in Korean tissues were investigated in cadavers undergoing forensic medical examinations in National Institute of Scientific Investigation of Korea MATERIALS AND METHODSPreparation of Samples ---From July 1997 to March 2000, we collected and examined body tissue parts (liver, kidney, cerebrum, spleen, lung, bone, hair and nail) from 150 dead bodies (89 males, 61 females) who had lived in Seoul and Kyonggi Province and died prematurely, from trauma, traffic accident, hanging, strangulation, etc.As a result of our histological examination, we obtained samples without special diseases.The tissue samples collected from autopsy were kept in -40°C and used for an experiment.The distribution by age group is shown in Table 1. Decomposing the Sample and Measuring theRecovery ---After leaving each tissue alone until it reached room temperature, the blood which stained their surface was removed and the tissues were decomposed with microwave digestion system (Milestone s.r.l., mls 1200 mega, Italy) according to the