We tested the hypothesis that intravenous ascorbic acid increases urinary excretion of mercury in subjects with low mercury levels from dental amalgam, food, and other sources. From 89 adult volunteers we selected 28 subjects with the highest mercury excretions (2 to 14 micrograms/24 h). We administered intravenous infusions of 500 ml lactated Ringer's solution with and without addition of 750 mg of ascorbic acid/kg body weight, up to 60 g ascorbic acid. Average mercury excretion during the 24 h after infusion of ascorbic acid was 4.0 +/- 0.5 micrograms (mean +/- SEM), which was not significantly more than after infusion of Ringer's solution alone (3.7 +/- 0.5 micrograms). Lead excretion was similarly unaffected. If ascorbic acid administered intravenously benefits some persons with suspected adverse reactions to mercury, the benefit in subjects similar to ours appears unrelated to short-term enhanced excretion of mercury or lead.
The net reproductive output was determined for two strains of Drosophila melanogaster, wild-type (+) and white-eyed (w), under conditions of varied wavelength and intensity of illumination. The reproductive output of wild-type flies raised under blue light (max. 470 nm) was significantly lower (p < 0.01) than that of organisms grown under red (max. 630 and 660 nm) or green(max. 530 nm) illumination, or under conditions of total darkness. In contrast, blue light did not depress the reproductive output of white-eyed flies. The differential reproductive response of the two strains, then, appears to be related to genetically determined properties of the eye. Changes in the radiant fluence rate over a 10-fold range were not found to significantly modify reproductive output of wild-type flies, and if flies were illuminated with red, green, or blue light at identical fluence rates, those under blue, again, had a significantly lower (p < 0.01) reproductive output than the other two. The data suggest that the emission spectrum, not the radiant light intensity, significantly affects the number of offspring produced per parent.
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