Overview
Hançerlioğulları and colleagues measured 14 heavy metals by EDXRF in 30 raw sepiolite clay samples from three quarries in Central Anatolia and calculated enrichment factors. Mean arsenic was 5.3 mg/kg, cadmium 3.7 mg/kg in the samples where it was quantified, and lead 5.3 mg/kg. The Beylikova quarry had the highest levels of most metals, and mercury was below 1.0 mg/kg.
Key numbers
- All samples: arsenic mean “5.3” (range 0.8-13.4) mg/kg, lead “5.3” (1.4-7.2) mg/kg (Table 1, p. 1693).
- Cadmium quantified only at Beylikova (SQ2): mean “3.7”, range “2.1-5.4” mg/kg; ”< 2.0” at the other two quarries (Table 2, p. 1693).
- Mercury “below the detection limit of 1.0 mg/kg” (Results, p. 1693).
Methods (brief)
Samples were analyzed by EDXRF spectroscopy; preparation details are referred to earlier papers. Detection limits are stated only for mercury and implied by the less-than values in Table 2. No reference material is reported.
Evidence Fitness
Thirty samples with full descriptive statistics, but XRF with limited QA, and the basis (dried or not) is not stated. These are raw quarry minerals, not cosmetic products; sepiolite is used in cosmetics among many other uses. Raw clay is a proxy for cosmetic-clay, which is not linked.