Selected toxic and essential heavy metals in impacted teeth and the surrounding mandibular bones of people exposed to heavy metals in the environment

Table 4 Heavy metal concentrations (μg/g) in the samples provided by women and men living in Ruda Slaska

	Impacted teeth (n = 34)				Bone surrounding the impacted teeth (n = 34)
Element	Women (n = 23) Median	Men (n = 11) Median	U-value	p - level^*	Women (n = 23) Median	Men (n = 11) Median	U-value	p - level^*
Pb	9.30	8.83	118	0.768	8.05	6.63	91	0.197
Cd	0.12	0.13	99	0.320	0.86	0.87	111	0.580
Fe	9.99	9.99	120	0.839	15.32	20.84	92	0.210
Mn	3.85	3.84	125	0.970	5.29	1.70	66	0.027^a
Cr	4.72	5.79	83	0.113	4.47	1.31	51	0.006^a
Cu	9.02	9.10	114	0.658	15.30	8.08	68	0.052
Zn	318.15	284.26	107	0.484	221.19	160.61	67	0.059

n number of samples
^* p-levels, estimated using the Mann–Whitney U test, used to identify statistically significant differences between the metal concentrations in the samples provided by women and men
^a indicates the mean concentrations in the samples provided by women and men were significantly different

ISSN: 1745-6673