Table 1.

Average concentrations of heavy metals measured in hair roots and hair tip samples collected in 2018 from children exposed and unexposed to the mine.

Metal (mg/kg)	Reference valuea	Exposed group (Paragsha)		Unexposed group (Carhuamayo)
		Hair root	Hair tip	Hair root	Hair tip
Al	< 8.00	30.22	47.30	22.31	26.90
Sb	< 0.20	0.12	0.24	0.05	0.14
As	< 0.20	0.47	0.42	0.18	0.14
Ba	< 2.65	1.18	4.98	0.86	3.72
Be	< 0.03	0.002	0.005	0.001	0.003
B	< 0.84	2.64	2.70	1.72	2.19
Cd	< 0.20	0.10	0.40	0.04	0.13
Co	< 0.15	0.04	0.17	0.02	0.074
Cr	0.02–0.15	0.83	1.61	0.39	0.88
Fe	7.70–15.00	55.11	68.36	29.82	42.30
Mn	0.07–0.50	5.22	13.41	2.15	4.74
Hg	< 0.30	0.24	0.41	0.34	0.31
Mo	0.02–1.00	0.24	0.20	0.80	0.09
Ni	< 0.85	1.96	9.78	2.96	14.11
Pb	< 0.10	4.58	10.37	0.81	2.69
Cu	6.70–37.00	13.49	27.27	10.46	17.60
Se	0.40–1.70	8.73	1.26	0.79	0.71
Sn	0.93	42.0	79.16	0.11	0.55
Tl	< 0.01	0.02	0.02	0.01	0.005
V	0.01–0.15	0.06	0.20	0.04	0.08
Zn	110.0–227.0	200.71	488.79	188.81	258.00

^aReference values for children used by Micro Trace Minerals Laboratory in Germany. Hair tip samples were collected at 20 cm from the hair root.

Al aluminium, As arsenic, B boron, Ba barium, Be beryllium, Cd cadmium, Co cobalt, Cr chromium, Fe iron, Mn magnesium, Hg mercury, Mo molybdenum, Ni nickel, Pb lead, Cu copper, Sb antimony, Se selenium, Sn tin, Tl thallium, V vanadium, Zn zinc.