Estimation of heavy metals in human blood samples- To evaluate immunotoxic correlation with health risk in local population of Malwa region of Punjab

Abstract

Elements play a significant role in the human body for growth, development, and metabolism. But there are certain heavy metals which adversely affect the various processes of the biological system. A certain amount of different heavy metals is tolerable but above the optimum level, these have a drastic effect on the body. In this work, we evaluated the concentrations of specific heavy metals - Copper, Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead in human blood. The study area chosen is Malwa region of Punjab specifically Bathinda, as the area is reported to have heavy metal contamination in groundwater and soil which enter the food chain. There is no single study demonstrating the presence of heavy metals in blood samples of subjects in the study area and its possible correlation with high incidence of various diseases reported in the region. In our work, we have analyzed the concentration of four heavy metals- Copper, Arsenic, Cadmium and Lead in whole blood samples collected from susceptible and diseased individuals from study area using ICP- MS. Our preliminary data show that the concentration of arsenic and the lead was higher in the diseased group compared to the susceptibility group. Presence of these two heavy metals in blood found to be above the permissible limits can be the possible reason for high disease incidence in the study area.