Carmen Silvia Kira

Associated factors for higher lead and cadmium blood levels, and reference values derived from general population of São Paulo, Brazil

Human activities are associated with emissions of various metals into the environment, among which the heavy metals lead and cadmium stand out, as they pose a risk to human life even at low concentrations. Thus, accurate knowledge of the levels of these metals exhibited by the overall population, including children, is important. The aim of this study was to estimate the concentrations of lead and cadmium in the blood of adults, adolescents and children residing in the city of São Paulo, assess factors associated with higher lead and cadmium blood levels, and to establish reference values for this population. The study sample consisted of 669 adults over 20 years old, 264 adolescents aged 12 to 19 years old and 391 children under 11 years old from both genders. The samples were collected at the end of 2007 and during 2008 in different city zones. Higher blood lead concentration was significantly associated with gender, smoking, offal intake, area of residence and age. The blood cadmium concentration was significantly associated with gender, smoking, consumption of distilled beverages and age. The reference values of lead and cadmium established for adults above 20 years old were 33 μg/L and 0.6 μg/L, respectively, for adolescents (12 to 19 years old) were 31 μg/L and 0.6 μg/L, respectively and for children under 11 years old were 29 μg/L and 0.2 μg/L, respectively. The results of this study indicate that the exposure levels of the investigated population to lead and cadmium are low.

Auditory neurotoxicity and hepatotoxicity after MSMA (monosodium methanarsenate) high dose oral intake.

INTRODUCTION Organic arsenic compounds have been considered of low toxicity compared to inorganic arsenic compounds such as pentavalent and trivalent salts. A recent literature review shows a remarkable lack of toxicological studies or clinical cases of organic arsenic compound intoxication. Most of the works published in this field are related to toxic effects of organic hepatic metabolites of inorganic arsenic, like MMA (monometilarsonic acid) and DMA (dimetilarsinic acid or cacodylic acid), or natural organic forms found in water and fish such as arsenobetaine and arsenocholine. The latter ones (also known as ‘‘fish arsenic’’) have been shown to be essentially nontoxic (1,2). Synthetic forms of organic arsenicals, contained in many pesticides in use today, like MSMA (monosodium methanarsenate), are poorly studied, considering the rather well established low toxicity of fish arsenic. We report a case of MSMA intoxication leading to severe auditory, hepatic and neurological sequelae.

Elevados teores de sódio em alimentos industrializados consumidos pela população brasileira

Sodium is an essential compound for regulating the intracellular and extracellular mineral fluids, and for maintaining the blood pressure. An inadequate diet with ingestion of large quantities of salt may cause the chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular accidents, among others; thus, decreasing the intake of this mineral can reduce the risk factors of such diseases. The present study aimed at determining the sodium contents in some processed foods consumed by the Brazilian population: corn-based snacks, biscuit, hamburger, sausage and noodles, by means of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry technique (ICP OES). The high sodium contents detected in these products revealed the importance of implementation and maintenance of food monitoring programs in the country. These strategies will provide tools to assist the food producers for controlling the sodium addition in processed products. Also, these actions will yield data which will be useful for the competent authorities to establish a legal provision which limits the amount of sodium added into the processed food, to ensure the offering of healthy foods to the population, in order to promote satisfactory public health.

Determinação de elementos essenciais maiores e traço em queijos por espectrometria de emissão atômica com plasma de argônio induzido após digestão parcial

Concentrations of Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P and Zn in four different types of cheese (mozzarella, white cheese, prato and parmesan) were analyzed by inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) after partial digestion (HCl hydrolysis) and total digestion of organic matter (dry ashing). The results obtained for most of the elements analyzed here by the partial digestion (HCl hydrolysis) and dry ashing methods were found to be statistically congruent, demonstrating the promising potential of the partial digestion method in routine analyses.