頭髪中のセレン濃度について -日本人と外国人との比較-

抄録

Our result from the determination of the selenium concentration in the hair of individuals from different countries shows significant differences between different countries. Since this is likely due to differences in diet, such as fish. It suggests that the selenium determination from hair may be useful in further general studies of selenium effects.

Samples of hair from 370 subjects were。analysed by neutron activation. The samples were taken from residents of nine different countries: Japan, France, Ivory Coast, Brasil, Paraguay, Canary Islands, Papua New Guinea, Italy and New Zealand. The irradiations were carried out under a thermal neutron flux of 1.5 X 10¹²n/cm². sec. The selenium determination was made using the ⁷⁶Se(n,γ)^77m Se reaction.

It was found that the average selenium concentration in the hair of Japanese subjects, both those living in Japan and those living in foreign countries was higher (Total average: 0.59 ± 0.14ppm) than that of subjects from other countries (Total average: 0.42 ± 0.13 ppm). However, the Se value of residents in Papua new Guinea who were working at a Japanese fishery company was similar to that of Japanese (0.59 ± 0.10ppm).