The Scoop on Eating Dirt

Starks, Philip T.; Slabach, Brittany L.

doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0612-30

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Given the difficulties of quantifying the pathways of exposure, bioavailability, bioaccessibilty, and understanding the full extent of health effects, it is essential to include a 'margin of safety' to protect the health of the most vulnerable individuals, especially children. Soil ingestion is common in humans especially in children (Starks and Slabach, 2012). According to U.S. research guidelines, if ingestion is involved then a factor of 10 must be applied as a margin of safety (US DHHS, 2005).…”

Section: Health Effects and The Margin Of Safety Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination

Laidlaw

Filippelli

Brown

et al. 2017

Applied Geochemistry

135

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Urban soils in many communities in the United States and internationally have been contaminated by lead (Pb) from past use of lead additives in gasoline, deterioration of exterior paint, emissions from Pb smelters and battery recycling and other industries. Exposure to Pb in soil and related dust is widespread in many inner city areas. Up to 20e40% of urban children in some neighborhoods have blood lead levels (BLLs) equal to or above 5 mg per decilitre, the reference level of health concern by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Given the widespread nature of Pb contamination in urban soils it has proven a challenge to reduce exposure. In order to prevent this exposure, an evidence-based approach is required to isolate or remediate the soils and prevent children and adult's ongoing exposure. To date, the majority of community soil Pb remediation efforts have been focused in mining towns or in discrete neighborhoods where Pb smelters have impacted communities. These efforts have usually entailed very expensive dig and dump soil Pb remediation techniques, funded by the point source polluters. Remediating widespread non-point source urban soil contamination using this approach is neither economical nor feasible from a practical standpoint. Despite the need to remediate/isolate urban soils in inner city areas, no deliberate, large scale, cost effective Pb remediation schemes have been implemented to isolate inner city soils impacted from sources other than mines and smelters. However, a city-wide natural experiment of flooding in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that declines in soil Pb resulted in major BLL reductions. Also a growing body of literature of smaller scale pilot studies and programs does exist regarding low cost efforts to isolate Pb contaminated urban soils. This paper reviews the literature regarding the effectiveness of soil Pb remediation for reducing Pb exposure and BLL in children, and suggests best practices for addressing the epidemics of low-level Pb poisoning occurring in many inner city areas.

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Section: Health Effects and The Margin Of Safety Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination

Laidlaw

Filippelli

Brown

et al. 2017

Applied Geochemistry

135

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“…The protection hypothesis posits that geophagia is motivated by the desire to mitigate harmful effects of toxins, chemicals, or microbes in the body (Young et al, 2010). According to Starks & Slabach (2012), the negatively charged clay molecules can easily bind to positively charged toxins in the stomach and oesophagus and thereby prevent the toxin from being absorbed into the bloodstream.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the Geophagic Materials and Their Associated Rocks and Soils from Anfoega, Ghana

Badu

Nude

Dodor

et al. 2021

gjs

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This study was conducted to examine the physico-chemical and mineralogical properties of geophagic materials and their associated rocks and soils from Anfoega, Ghana. The geophagic materials were sampled from pits >10 m deep overlain by massive sandstones and shallow soils which were also sampled. The pH of the geophagic materials was strongly acid. The pH of the soils from the three sites was slightly to moderately acid, that of the fourth site was moderately acid in the surface but strongly acid in the lower layers. While the geophagic materials were enriched with clay, the soil samples contained high amounts of sand. The CEC of the geophagic materials (18.0 to 23.2 cmolc kg-1) was higher than that of the soils (5.3 to 22.6 cmolc kg-1). Thin sections of the rocks showed high amounts of quartz and accessory feldspars and sericite. The geophagic materials contained high amounts of clay (with >79% SiO2), quartz, feldspars and sericite. X-ray diffractograms of the geophagic materials, rocks and soils were dominated by quartz, kaolinite, muscovite and feldspars. The sialic minerals in the geophagic materials (shales) were probably leached from the overlying sandstones. The mineralogy of the soils indicated that they were formed in-situ from the underlying sandstones.

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“…We hypothesise that honey bees have an optimal diet that includes nutritional resources from both floral and water sources. As the honey bee's main floral diet only contains trace amounts of micronutrients (Somerville, ; Brodschneider & Crailsheim, ), and sodium‐specific foraging is a well‐known behaviour in social insects (Botch & Judd, ; Pizarro et al ., ) and across the animal kingdom (Denton, ; Young et al ., ; Starks & Slabach, ), we postulate that to obtain a well‐rounded diet, honey bees selectively forage in soil and water for minerals that their main floral diet may lack. As the honey bee colony is a dynamic environment and honey bees live in temperate regions, our hypothesis leads us to three main predictions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonality of salt foraging in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Bonoan

Tai

Rodriguez

et al. 2016

Ecological Entomology

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1. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) prefer foraging at compound‐rich, ‘dirty’, water sources over clean water sources. As a honey bee's main floral diet only contains trace amounts of micronutrients – likely not enough to sustain an entire colony – it was hypothesised that honey bees forage in dirty water for physiologically essential minerals that their floral diet, and thus the colony, may lack. 2. While there are many studies regarding macronutrient requirements of honey bees, few investigate micronutrient needs. For this study, from 2013 to 2015, a series of preference assays were conducted in both summer and autumn. 3. During all field seasons, honey bees exhibited a strong preference for sodium in comparison to deionised water. There was, however, a notable switch in preferences for other minerals between seasons. 4. Calcium, magnesium, and potassium – three minerals most commonly found in pollen – were preferred in autumn when pollen was scarce, but were avoided in summer when pollen was abundant. Thus, as floral resources change in distribution and abundance, honey bees similarly change their water‐foraging preferences. 5. Our data suggest that, although they are generalists with relatively few gustatory receptor genes, honey bee foragers are fine‐tuned to search for micronutrients. This ability likely helps the foragers in their search for a balanced diet for the colony as a whole.

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The Scoop on Eating Dirt

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination

Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination

Characterization of the Geophagic Materials and Their Associated Rocks and Soils from Anfoega, Ghana

Seasonality of salt foraging in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

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