Environmental Research (ENVIRON RES)

Publications in this journal

• Article: R. C. Matos, C. Vieira, S. Morais, M. L. Pereira, J. P. de Jesus, “Toxicity of Chromated Copper Arsenate: a Study in Mice”, Environmental Research, 110 (2010) 424–427.

  R. C. Matos, C. Vieira, S. Morais, M. L. Pereira, J. P. de Jesus
  Environmental Research 01/2010;
• Article: Can living in the surroudings of a petrochemical complex be a risk factor for autoimmune thyroid disease?

  Clarice Umbelino de Freitas, Rosaria A Grimaldi Campos, Mirta Alcira Ferro Rodrigues Silva, Maria Rosana I Panachao, Jose Cassio de Moraes, Willian Waissemann, Antonio Roberto Chacra, Marina Y S Maeda, Regina S Minazzi Rodrigues, James Gonçalves Belchor, Sonia Oliveira Barbosa, Raimunda Telma M dos Santos
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  ABSTRACT: Background: Based on a suspicion raised by a health professional and due to a subsequent legal request, a cross-sectional study was made with a comparison group to investigate a possible excess of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis—HT and antibodies—ATA in the surroundings of a Petrochemical Complex. Methods: People of both sexes aged over 20 years were investigated in a random sample of residents in the area surrounding the Petrochemical Complex. Controls were investigated in an area with steel industries. In the areas searched, participants were chosen randomly and stratified a priori by sex and age group. As a result, 90.5% of the expected sample was obtained, totaling 1533 individuals. HT and ATA prevalences were compared by the chi-square test. Logistic regression was used to control the possible confounding factors for HT and ATA. Results: Both TH (9.3%) and ATA (17.6%) prevalences were higher in the Petrochemical Complex area than in the control area (3.9% and 10.3%, respectively). After controlling the possible confounding factors, the POR for living in the surroundings of the Complex and presenting HT was 2.39 (CI95%: 1.42– 4.03). According to the ATA criterion, the POR for living in the surroundings of the Complex was 1.78 (CI95%: 1.23–2.60). Conclusions: The authors have found higher prevalence and risk of developing thyroiditis and antithyroid antibodies among residents of areas surrounding the Petrochemical Complex and think these findings need to be further studied in similar areas.
  Environmental Research 01/2010; 110(1):112-117.
• Article: can living in sou

  Clarice Umbelino de Freitas, Rosaria A Grimaldi Campos, Mirta Alcira Ferro Rodrigues Silva, Maria Rosana I Panachao, Jose Cassio de Moraes, Willian Waissemann, Antonio Roberto Chacra, Marina Y S Maeda, Regina S Minazzi Rodrigues, James Gonçalves Belchor, Sonia Oliveira Barbosa, Raimunda Telma M dos Santos
  [show abstract] [hide abstract]
  ABSTRACT: Background: Based on a suspicion raised by a health professional and due to a subsequent legal request, a cross-sectional study was made with a comparison group to investigate a possible excess of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis—HT and antibodies—ATA in the surroundings of a Petrochemical Complex. Methods: People of both sexes aged over 20 years were investigated in a random sample of residents in the area surrounding the Petrochemical Complex. Controls were investigated in an area with steel industries. In the areas searched, participants were chosen randomly and stratified a priori by sex and age group. As a result, 90.5% of the expected sample was obtained, totaling 1533 individuals. HT and ATA prevalences were compared by the chi-square test. Logistic regression was used to control the possible confounding factors for HT and ATA. Results: Both TH (9.3%) and ATA (17.6%) prevalences were higher in the Petrochemical Complex area than in the control area (3.9% and 10.3%, respectively). After controlling the possible confounding factors, the POR for living in the surroundings of the Complex and presenting HT was 2.39 (CI95%: 1.42– 4.03). According to the ATA criterion, the POR for living in the surroundings of the Complex was 1.78 (CI95%: 1.23–2.60). Conclusions: The authors have found higher prevalence and risk of developing thyroiditis and antithyroid antibodies among residents of areas surrounding the Petrochemical Complex and think these findings need to be further studied in similar areas.
  Environmental Research 01/2010; 110(1-110):112-117.
• Article: Electromagnetic fields as cancer-causing agents.

  D Belpomme, P Irigaray, L Hardell
  Environmental Research 07/2008; 107(2):289-90.
• Article: Selenium as a potential protective factor against mercury developmental neurotoxicity.

  Anna L Choi, Esben Budtz-Jørgensen, Poul J Jørgensen, Ulrike Steuerwald, Frodi Debes, Pál Weihe, Philippe Grandjean
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  ABSTRACT: Experimental studies suggest that selenium (Se) may decrease methylmercury (MeHg) toxicity under certain exposure regimens. In epidemiological studies, the exposure to MeHg occurs from fish and seafood, which are also a source of beneficial nutrients such as selenium. However, little is known about the potential protective effects of dietary Se against MeHg neurotoxicity in humans. The possible interaction was assessed in two birth cohorts in the Faroe Islands, consisting of singleton term births from 1986 to 1987 (N=1,022), and 1994 to 1995 (N=182), respectively. Dietary habits in this fishing population included frequent consumption of seafood, including whale meat high in mercury. Both Hg and Se were measured in cord whole blood. Neurodevelopmental outcomes were evaluated at age 7 years in both cohorts, and the smaller cohort also included neurological assessment on several prior occasions. Each outcome was modeled as a function of Hg and Se interactions (with adjustments for potential risk factors) by expressing the effects of log10(Hg) within the lowest 25%, the middle 50%, and the highest 25% of the Se distribution. Surplus Se was present in cord blood, the average being a 10-fold molar excess above MeHg. Regression analyses failed to show consistent effects of Se, or statistically significant interaction terms between Se and MeHg. Overall, no evidence was found that Se was an important protective factor against MeHg neurotoxicity. Prevention, therefore, needs to address MeHg exposures rather than Se intakes. Because of the benefits associated with fish intake during pregnancy, consumers should be advised to maintain a high fish and seafood intake that is low in Hg contamination. Additional research is needed to determine the identity of the nutrients responsible for the beneficial effects.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):45-52.
• Article: Somatosensory disturbance by methylmercury exposure.

  Shigeru Takaoka, Yoshinobu Kawakami, Tadashi Fujino, Fumihiro Oh-ishi, Fukuo Motokura, Yoshio Kumagai, Tetsu Miyaoka
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  ABSTRACT: Minamata disease is methylmercury poisoning from consuming fish and shellfish contaminated by industrial waste. The polluted seafood was widely consumed in the area around Minamata, but many individuals were never examined for or classified as having Minamata disease. Following the determination of the Supreme Court of Japan in October 2004 that the Japanese Government was responsible for spreading Minamata disease, over 13,000 residents came forward to be examined for Minamata disease. We studied 197 residents from the Minamata area who had a history of fish consumption during the polluted period to determine the importance of sensory symptoms and findings in making a diagnosis of Minamata disease. We divided the exposed subjects into non-complicated (E) and complicated (E+N) groups based on the absence or presence of other neurological or neurologically related disorders and compared them to residents in control area (C) after matching for age and sex. We quantitatively measured four somatosensory modalities (minimal tactile sense by Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments, vibration sense, position sense, and two-point discrimination) and did psychophysical tests of fine-surface-texture discrimination. Subjective complaints were higher in groups E and E+N than C. Over 90% of E+N and E subjects displayed a sensory disturbance on conventional neurological examination and 28% had visual constriction. About 50% of the E and E +N groups had upper and lower extremity ataxia and about 70% had truncal ataxia. The prevalence of these neurological findings was significantly higher in exposed subjects than controls. All sensory modalities were impaired in the E and E+N groups. All four quantitatively measured sensory modalities were correlated. The prevalence of complaints, neurological findings, and sensory impairment was similar or a little worse in group E+N than in group E. We conclude that sensory symptoms and findings are important in making the diagnosis of Minamata disease and that they can be determined even in the presence of neurological or neurologically related diseases.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):6-19.
• Article: Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP): human health and exposure to methylmercury.

  Henry A Anderson
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):1-3.
• Article: Blood and urine mercury levels in adult amalgam patients of a randomized controlled trial: interaction of Hg species in erythrocytes.

  S Halbach, S Vogt, W Köhler, N Felgenhauer, G Welzl, L Kremers, T Zilker, D Melchart
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  ABSTRACT: Parts of the population are permanently exposed to low levels of Hg degrees and Hg(II) from dental amalgam. It was the aim (1) to investigate the internal exposure to amalgam-related mercury from the kinetics of inorganic Hg in plasma and erythrocytes after amalgam removal, and (2) to estimate the amalgam-related absorbed dose. Dietary coexposure was monitored by determination of blood organic-Hg. Postremoval steady-state Hg concentrations were measured for 18 months. Eighty-two patients had been randomized into three groups: (A) removal of the fillings; (B) removal and non-specific detoxification, and (C) a health promotion program without removal. After amalgam removal, inorganic Hg dropped rapidly in plasma and red cells, stabilizing at 27% of preremoval levels after 60 days. Concentrations of organic Hg in plasma remained unchanged, indicating no change in dietary uptake of organic Hg. The concentration of organic Hg in red cells of group A was in the early postremoval phase lower and in the late postremoval phase higher than the preremoval control (p<0.01 for low-high difference). A protracted increase in organic Hg was also found in red cells of group B after 60 days. Thus, the effect of removal on organic Hg levels in the combined group A+B was compared with the values of group C in a linear mixed effects (LME) model which showed a significant increase with time in group A+B (p=0.028). In all groups, time profiles of urinary concentration and excretion of total-Hg were very similar to those of inorganic-Hg levels in plasma. From extrapolations of blood and urine data it was estimated that the amalgam-related inhalation and ingestion of Hg species were within the limits proposed by WHO, ATSDR and EPA. The integrated daily Hg dose absorbed from amalgam was estimated up to 3 microg for an average number of fillings and at 7.4 for a high amalgam load. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study on adult amalgam patients which continuously monitored the postremoval decline of inorganic Hg and the coexposure from dietary organic Hg in a randomized-controlled-trial design. The integrated daily dose of 7.4 microg absorbed from a high amalgam load is well below the tolerable dose of 30 microg (WHO, 1990). The unexpected postremoval increase in erythrocyte organic Hg, which is associated with the depletion of cellular inorganic Hg, might result from binding of organic Hg to cellular sites previously occupied by inorganic Hg.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):69-78.
• Article: Mercury as a serious health hazard for children in gold mining areas.

  Stephan Bose-O'Reilly, Beate Lettmeier, Raffaella Matteucci Gothe, Christian Beinhoff, Uwe Siebert, Gustav Drasch
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  ABSTRACT: In many developing countries, mercury is used to extract gold from ore in small-scale mining areas. Exposure through mercury in these small-scale mining communities is a serious health hazard, especially to the children living and working there. Many children begin working with immediate contact to mercury from the very early age of seven. In Indonesia and Zimbabwe, 166 children were clinically examined for mercury. The mercury concentration in the blood, urine, and hair was analyzed. Compared to the control groups, the exposed children showed typical symptoms of mercury intoxication, such as ataxia. The children working with mercury had high levels of this substance in the various biomonitors. The exposure derives mainly from the liquid mercury used to bind gold, forming an amalgam. The amalgam is heated and the smelting amalgam releases mercury vapor plus the wanted gold. Mercury vapor in contrast to liquid mercury is highly toxic. This elemental, vaporized mercury is the main form of exposure. Since in over 50 countries children live in small-scale gold mining areas and are exposed in a similar way to mercury, immediate action is needed to reduce this severe chemical health hazard for children. Child labor with hazardous substances such as mercury must be stopped.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):89-97.
• Article: Methylmercury exposure assessment using dietary and biomarker data among frequent seafood consumers in France CALIPSO study.

  Véronique Sirot, Thierry Guérin, Yves Mauras, Hervé Garraud, Jean-Luc Volatier, Jean-Charles Leblanc
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  ABSTRACT: Seafood is considered by toxicologists as the main source of methylmercury (MeHg), but little data is available concerning contamination of seafood and MeHg status of French frequent consumers. The objectives were to assess food exposure and biomarker of exposure of MeHg from a group of frequent consumers of seafood. Two approaches to exposure assessment were used: the currently used food intake and the biomarker of exposure. A validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess seafood consumptions for 80 products of 385 frequent consumers aged 18 and over in four French coastal areas. Seafood samples were collected in each region considering preservation methods and supply habits according to a total diet study sampling. Food samples were analyzed for MeHg. Exposure was assessed by combining consumptions with contamination data. Whole blood samples were collected from the volunteers and analyzed for MeHg. The mean dietary exposure to MeHg or weekly intake (WI FFQ) was 1.51+/-1.17 microg/kg bw/wk. Thirty-five percent of the subjects exceed the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), whereas the use of the biological results with the JECFA/Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) one-compartment pharmacokinetic model to calculate weekly intake (WI PKM) shows that only 2% of subjects exceed the PTWI. The mean of the individual ratios WI FFQ/WI PKM is 4.3 and the higher the WI FFQ and the blood MeHg level, the lower is the ratio, close to 1-2. These analyses support the assumption that the calculated dose of methylmercury is overestimated with the FFQ-based method used in this study. Since FFQ are commonly used in risk assessments, the overestimate of dose is public health protective and this finding is somewhat reassuring from a public health point of view, especially since the JECFA or EPA have applied uncertainty factors of 3.2 or 3, respectively, to take into account the inter-individual pharmacokinetic variability.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):30-8.
• Article: Exposure to inorganic mercury: from dental amalgam to artisanal gold mining.

  Lars Barregard
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):4-5.
• Article: Mercury toxicity in Amazon gold miners: visual dysfunction assessed by retinal and cortical electrophysiology.

  Genilma M da Costa, Laiza M dos Anjos, Givago S Souza, Bruno D Gomes, Cézar A Saito, Maria da Conceição N Pinheiro, Dora F Ventura, Manoel da Silva Filho, Luiz Carlos L Silveira
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  ABSTRACT: Amazonian gold mining activity results in human exposure to mercury vapor. We evaluated the visual system of two Amazonian gold miners (29 and 37 years old) by recording the transient pattern electroretinogram (tPERG) and transient pattern visual evoked potential (tPVEP). We compared these results with those obtained from a regional group of control subjects. For both tPERG and tPVEP, checkerboards with 0.5 or 2 cycles per degree (cpd) of spatial frequency were presented in a 16 degrees squared area, 100% Michelson contrast, 50cd/m2 mean luminance, and 1 Hz square-wave pattern-reversal presentation. Two averaged waveforms (n=240 sweeps, 1s each) were monocularly obtained for each subject in each condition. Both eyes were monocularly tested only in gold miners. Normative data were calculated using a final pooled waveform with 480 sweeps. The first gold miner, LCS, had normal tPERG responses. The second one, RNP, showed low tPERG (P50 component) amplitudes at 0.5 cpd for both eyes, outside the normative data, and absence of response at 2 cpd for his right eye. Delayed tPVEP responses (P100 component) were found at 2 cpd for LCS but the implicit times were inside the normative data. Subject RNP also showed delayed tPVEP responses (all components), but only the implicit time obtained with his right eye was outside the normative data at 2 cpd. We conclude that mercury exposure levels found in the Amazon gold miners is high enough to damage the visual system and can be assessed by non-invasive electrophysiological techniques.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):98-107.
• Article: Scalp hair as a biomarker in environmental and occupational mercury exposed populations: suitable or not?

  Yu-Feng Li, Chunying Chen, Bai Li, Jiangxue Wang, Yuxi Gao, Yuliang Zhao, Zhifang Chai
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  ABSTRACT: Hair is a well-established and widely used matrix for measuring mercury exposure of an individual. Although a variety of washing procedures to remove external mercury contamination have been proposed, no standardized procedures are available yet. In this study, different washing reagents like l-cysteine (Cys), 2-mercaptoethanol (ME), and disodium diaminoethanetetra acetate (EDTA) were used to find out if it is possible to remove mercury contamination from human scalp hair spiked with HgCl2 solutions at different concentrations. It was found that the external mercury contamination could not be fully washed off even using reagents with high affinity to mercury like l-cysteine and ME. However, for the well-pulverized CRM hair samples some of the endogenous mercury was washed off. It suggests that hair is not a suitable biomarker for evaluation of total mercury exposure especially in people like mercury miners or gold miners/burners associated with serious external Hg exposure. However, hair still can be used as an indicator for methyl mercury exposure because, generally, there is almost no exogenous contamination of methyl mercury in hair.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):39-44.
• Article: A possible approach for setting a mercury risk-based action level based on tribal fish ingestion rates.

  Barbara L Harper, Stuart G Harris
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  ABSTRACT: Risks from mercury and other contaminants in fish for a large Columbia River dataset are evaluated in this paper for a range of consumption rates. Extensive ethnohistorical, nutritional, recent ethnographic surveys, and other documentation was reviewed to confirm previous determinations that the traditional subsistence fish consumption rate is 500 pounds per capita annually, or 620 g per day (gpd). Lower comtemporary consumption rates for other population subsets are also discussed. The causes of the current suppression of fish consumption are discussed and the cultural, educational, social, and trade and economic impacts of the loss of fish are considered. Action levels for mercury for riverine Tribes in the Columbia Basin are suggested at 0.1 ppm or less based on the combined risk from mercury plus other contaminants, the higher fish consumption rates, the existing cultural deficit due to loss of salmon and other stressors, the health benefits of fish, and the cultural and economic importance of fish. The goal of fish advisories is to reduce fish consumption even further, which shifts the burden of avoiding risk to the very people who already bear the burdens of contaminant exposure, socio-economic impacts and cultural loss. However, because Tribal communities often do not have the choice of giving up more food, income, religion, culture, and heritage in order to avoid contamination, they are forced into choosing between culture and health. Many tribal members choose to incur chemical risk rather than giving up their culture and religion. We believe that lowering the action level for mercury is part of the federal fiduciary responsibility to American Indian Tribes.
  Environmental Research 06/2008; 107(1):60-8.