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More recently, attention has shifted to essential elements, since both deficiencies and excesses can harm health. Regular monitoring of (non-)essential elements supports risk assessment and policymaking. While urine and blood are common biomonitoring matrices, hair offers a non-invasive alternative that reflects exposure over several months, though standardised methodologies for hair analysis remain limited.\u00a0This study aimed to develop and validate a sensitive and robust analytical method for the determination of 29 elements in human hair, addressing key challenges in sample preparation and contamination control.\u00a0We developed a sensitive and robust method for the determination of 29 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, S, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Ti, U, V, and Zn) in 3\u00a0cm segments of human hair that involves a washing procedure with acetone and Milli-Q water, microwave digestion with 65% HNO\n                    <jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>\n                    , and analysis with Triple Quadrupole Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS\/MS).\u00a0Evaluation of preparation steps revealed stainless-steel scissors as a major contamination source. Glass digestion vessels were unsuitable for several elements due to high detection limits and relative standard deviations. The optimised method reduced analytical variability and improved sensitivity compared to published protocols.\u00a0This validated method enables reproducible multi-elemental analysis in hair, highlights overlooked contamination risks, and is now applied in human biomonitoring studies to strengthen exposure assessment and standardisation efforts.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s12011-025-04968-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T19:58:47Z","timestamp":1768939127000},"page":"4348-4362","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Optimisation of A Sample Preparation Method for the Determination of Multi-Elemental Compositions in Human Hair By Triple Quadrupole ICP-MS Analysis"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"204","author":[{"given":"Agneta Annika","family":"Runkel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marta","family":"Jagodic Hudobivnik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Igor","family":"\u017divkovi\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Polona","family":"Klemen\u010di\u010d","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Darja","family":"Mazej","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Milena","family":"Horvat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"4968_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1847","DOI":"10.1158\/1055-9965.EPI-05-0456","volume":"14","author":"CP Wild","year":"2005","unstructured":"Wild CP (2005) Complementing the genome with an exposome: the outstanding challenge of environmental exposure measurement in molecular epidemiology. 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The study protocol was approved by the National Medical Ethics Committee of the Republic of Slovenia (number of accordance: 0120\u2013431\/2018\/7). Informed written consent was obtained from the legal guardians of all participants.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics Approval"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}]}}