The hair samples collected were cut to about 200 - 250 mg using stainless steel scissors rinsed in ethanol, then coded and stored. The stored samples were further cut into approximately 0.125 in (0.3 cm) pieces and mixed to allow a representative subsampling of the hair specimens and were washed according to the recommendation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [13]. Ex- actly 0.1065 g of hair sample was weighed accurately into a 50 mL crucible. The sample was covered with 8 mL conc. HNO3, after which the crucible was covered with the crucible lid and placed on a hot plate. Hair was digested at 70°C - 85°C for about 25 minutes or until the hair is completely digested and the solution becomes clear. The crucible was not allowed to go dry until the digestion was complete. After cooling to room tempera-ture inside the fume hood, 1 mL of 30% H2O2 was added to each sample, and heated again on hot plate at the low-est setting (first setting i.e. 42°C) just until bubbling stops. After this, heat was increased to about 80°C or as needed until the volume is reduced to about 2.5 mL [14]. The contents of each crucible were quantitatively transferred to a cleaned and dried 100 mL volumetric flask. The di- gestion vessel was rinsed three times with 1.5 mL each with deionised water and added to the volumetric flask and made up to volume with deionised water. (It could be filtered using Whatman paper no. 1 and no. 40 if the so- lution looks cloudy to prevent clogging the nebulizer). It was then transferred to a cleaned sample bottle, corked,