Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and scanning electron microscopy with field emission equipped with energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) were applied in order to investigate the surface of chosen biological indicators such as bark, needles and hair. All samples were collected from the urban areas of the Lodz city region, recognized as one of the most polluted in Poland. The high resolution of the applied techniques provides good separation of signals from different chemical species. High detection sensitivity enables an analysis of crucial elements and/or molecules. It was found that the surface of the materials studied was in general covered by many exogenous particles, suggesting, from the monitoring purpose point of view, their possible anthropogenic origin. The preliminary results obtained revealed that these techniques can be successfully used in environmental analysis of various biological samples and can provide detailed information about distribution and composition of airborne pollutants within the sample surfaces studied as well as initiate a renewed interest in the exposure study. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.