Urban population exposure to lead and cadmium in east and south-east Asia

Nutrient intake by kindergarten children in Beijing and Xian, China in 2004-2005, with special reference to sources of high sodium intake

“…The present analysis proved that Cd intake was associated with intakes of cereals, rice in particular, despite the fact that Cd intake in the present survey was as low as 8.9 μg/day (Table 3), which is only 1.5% of the levels reported for adult residents in Cd-polluted areas (e.g., 541 or 684 μg/day [33]), because foods are exclusive sources of Cd exposure among general populations [14]. The lack of association of Pb exposure levels with any type of cereals is conceivable, although the level, 12.0 μg/day (Table 3) was about 19% of the levels reported for polluted areas, e.g., 63 μg/ day [31].…”

“…Cereals are known to be major dietary sources for two environmental pollutant elements of Cd and Pb [14,15,[30][31][32]. The present analysis proved that Cd intake was associated with intakes of cereals, rice in particular, despite the fact that Cd intake in the present survey was as low as 8.9 μg/day (Table 3), which is only 1.5% of the levels reported for adult residents in Cd-polluted areas (e.g., 541 or 684 μg/day [33]), because foods are exclusive sources of Cd exposure among general populations [14].…”

“…As Cd and Pb values are known to distribute log-normally (rather than normally) e.g. [9,14,15], geometric means (GMs) and geometric standard deviations (GSDs) were calculated for these two pollutant elements. For statistical evaluation, p<0.05 was taken as the point of significance.…”

The Threshold Cadmium Level That Causes a Substantial Increase in .BETA.2-Microglobulin in Urine of General Populations

“…It is further known that long-term environmental exposure to Cd even at low doses may result in dysfunction of renal tubules, and that Cd and β 2 -microglobulin (β 2 -MG) levels in urine (Cd-U and β 2 -MG-U) are markers of exposure to Cd and resulting health effects (tubular dysfunction), respectively (International Programme on Chemical Safety 1992a, b). Thus, it is of public health importance to know whether or not a threshold Cd-U exists in causing a substantial increase in β 2 -MG-U, especially for the general population in Japan where dietary Cd intake has been higher than those in neighboring countries (Ikeda et al 2000a).…”

Health risks of heavy metals in contaminated soils and food crops irrigated with wastewater in Beijing, China

“…According to the National Research Council (NRC), 1983, this process consists of four steps, hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose/response assessment, and risk characterization. Chronic level intake of toxic metals has adverse impacts on humans and the associated harmful impacts become apparent only after several years of exposure (Bahemuka and Mubofu, 1999;Ikeda et al, 2000). However, the consumption of heavy metal-contaminated food can seriously deplete some essential nutrients in the body that are further responsible for decreasing immunological defenses, intrauterine growth retardation, impaired psycho-social faculties, disabilities associated with malnutrition and high prevalence of upper gastrointestinal cancer rates (Iyengar and Nair, 2000;Türkdogan et al, 2003).…”