Multielemental hair composition of Brazilian Indian populational groups byinstrumental neutron activation analysis

In the present paper, for the first time the multielemental composition of hair samples of Indian populations living in the Xingu Park Reservation, in the Brazilian Amazonic region has been determined, by INAA. Irradiations w ere carried out at the Interfaculty Reactor Institute (Delft, The Netherlan ds) and, using a combination of different irradiation and decay times, abou t 40 elements could be determined in the hair. Previous analysis made at th e Radiochemistry Division of IPEN/CNEN-SP (Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commiss ion) of hair samples of a Brazilian control population allowed the determin ation of 20 elements, also by INAA. Comparison of the data obtained for the Indian populations and the controls showed very significant differences in elemental compositions for some elements, like Hg, Mn and Al while for oth ers, like Cu and Zn, the concentrations were similar. A discussion of the d ifferences found for other elements also is made in the present paper.