RED DEER ANTLERS AS BIOMONITORS FOR LEAD CONTAMINATION

Changes in human lead exposure were reconstructed by lead analyses of ancient teeth and bones, as lead accumulates in calcified tissues. As a consequence of research on wildlife species as biomonitors for envir onmental pollution, red deer antlers were considered as indicators for temporal and regional changes of environmental contamination by pollu tants such as lead and strontium-90. The chemical composition of the a ntler is similar to that of other bony tissues in the body. As many hu nters keep antlers as trophies even from a long time ago, without any conservational treatment but with an exact listing of the date and pla ce of shooting, the antlers represent valuable samples for environment al research, especially reconstruction of pollution of the past decade s when modern analytical techniques did not exist. The primary focus o f this study was to compare pollution by lead before and after the int roduction of lead additives to vehicle's fuel and the impact of radioa ctive strontium-90 to the environment. Results of Sr-90 analyses will be published in another paper (Schonhofer et al. 1994).