A Study on Mineral Changes on the Weathering Human Hair after Burial using EDX / 대한법의학회지

ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken to investigate mineral changes in weathered scalp hair after burial. EDX (energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) analysis was performed to measure the presence of minerals on the hair surface. Twelve scalp hairs, buried for 5-40 years, were chosen from deceased individuals buried in tombs in Soha-Ri, Kyonggi-Do, and other regions in Korea. Three normal hairs were used as the control group. EDX data showed that carbon, oxygen, and sulfur were detected in hair collected from all three burial grounds. In contrast, calcium was only detected in hair collected from tombs in Soha-ri. The amounts of calcium and sulfur were found to decrease with time for hair collected from tombs in Soha-ri. Similar results were observed with sodium for hair collected from other regions. These results show region specific mineral detection and a decrease in the concentration of minerals with time. Consequently, it is suggested that changes in minerals concentration in weathered hair could be used as basic data in the field of forensic medicine.