Chemical risks in food

The contamination of food by chemical hazards is a worldwide public health concern and is a leading cause of trade problems internationally. Contamination may occur through environmental pollution of the air, water and soil, such as the case with toxic metals, PCBs and dioxins, or through the intentional use of various chemicals, such as pesticides, animal drugs and other agrochemicals.

Food additives and contaminants resulting from food manufacturing and processing can also adversely affect health. Since 1976, WHO has implemented the Global Environment Monitoring System - Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment Programme (GEMS/Food), which has informed governments, the Codex Alimentarius Commission and other relevant institutions, as well as the public, on levels and trends of contaminants in food, their contribution to total human exposure, and significance with regard to public health and trade.

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Arsenic in drinking water

Arsenic may be found in water which has flowed through arsenic-rich rocks. Severe health effects have been observed in populations drinking arsenic-rich water over long periods in countries world-wide.

Source

• Arsenic is widely distributed throughout the earth's crust.
• Arsenic is introduced into water through the dissolution of minerals and ores, and concentrations in groundwater in some areas are elevated as a result of erosion from local rocks.
• Industrial effluents also contribute arsenic to water in some areas.
• Arsenic is also used commercially e.g. in alloying agents and wood preservatives.
• Combustion of fossil fuels is a source of arsenic in the environment through disperse atmospheric deposition.
• Inorganic arsenic can occur in the environment in several forms but in natural waters, and thus in drinking-water, it is mostly found as trivalent arsenite (As(III)) or pentavalent arsenate (As (V)). Organic arsenic species, abundant in seafood, are very much less harmful to health, and are readily eliminated by the body.
• Drinking-water poses the greatest threat to public health from arsenic. Exposure at work and mining and industrial emissions may also be significant locally.

Effects

• Chronic arsenic poisoning, as occurs after long-term exposure through drinking- water is very different to acute poisoning. Immediate symptoms on an acute poisoning typically include vomiting, oesophageal and abdominal pain, and bloody "rice water" diarrhoea. Chelation therapy may be effective in acute poisoning but should not be used against long-term poisoning.
• The symptoms and signs that arsenic causes, appear to differ between individuals, population groups and geographic areas. Thus, there is no universal definition of the disease caused by arsenic. This complicates the assessment of the burden on health of arsenic. Similarly, there is no method to identify those cases of internal cancer that were caused by arsenic from cancers induced by other factors.
• Long-term exposure to arsenic via drinking-water causes cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and kidney, as well as other skin changes such as pigmentation changes and thickening (hyperkeratosis).
• Increased risks of lung and bladder cancer and of arsenic-associated skin lesions have been observed at drinking-water arsenic concentrations of less than 0.05 mg/L.
• Absorption of arsenic through the skin is minimal and thus hand-washing, bathing, laundry, etc. with water containing arsenic do not pose human health risk.
• Following long-term exposure, the first changes are usually observed in the skin: pigmentation changes, and then hyperkeratosis. Cancer is a late phenomenon, and usually takes more than 10 years to develop.
• The relationship between arsenic exposure and other health effects is not clear-cut. For example, some studies have reported hypertensive and cardiovascular disease, diabetes and reproductive effects.
• Exposure to arsenic via drinking-water has been shown to cause a severe disease of blood vessels leading to gangrene in China (Province of Taiwan), known as 'black foot disease'. This disease has not been observed in other parts of the world, and it is possible that malnutrition contributes to its development. However, studies in several countries have demonstrated that arsenic causes other, less severe forms of peripheral vascular disease.
• According to some estimates, arsenic in drinking-water will cause 200,000 -- 270,000 deaths from cancer in Bangladesh alone (NRC, 1998; Smith, et al, 2000).

Measurement

• Accurate measurement of arsenic in drinking-water at levels relevant to health requires laboratory analysis, using sophisticated and expensive techniques and facilities as well as trained staff not easily available or affordable in many parts of the world.
• Analytical quality control and external validation remain problematic.
• Field test kits can detect high levels of arsenic but are typically unreliable at lower concentrations of concern for human health. Reliability of field methods is yet to be fully evaluated.

Prevention and control

The most important remedial action is prevention of further exposure by providing safe drinking- water. The cost and difficulty of reducing arsenic in drinking-water increases as the targeted concentration lowers. It varies with the arsenic concentration in the source water, the chemical matrix of the water including interfering solutes, availability of alternative sources of low arsenic water, mitigation technologies, amount of water to be treated, etc.

Control of arsenic is more complex where drinking-water is obtained from many individual sources (such as hand-pumps and wells) as is common in rural areas. Low arsenic water is only needed for drinking and cooking. Arsenic-rich water can be used safely for laundry and bathing. Discrimination between high-arsenic and low-arsenic sources by painting the hand-pumps (e.g. red and green) can be an effective and low cost means to rapidly reduce exposure to arsenic when accompanied by effective health education.

Alternative low-arsenic sources such as rain water and treated surface water may be available and appropriate in some circumstances. Where low arsenic water is not available, it is necessary to remove arsenic from drinking-water:

• The technology for arsenic removal for piped water supply is moderately costly and requires technical expertise. It is inapplicable in some urban areas of developing countries and in most rural areas world-wide.
• New types of treatment technologies, including co-precipitation, ion exchange and activated alumina filtration are being field-tested.
• There are no proven technologies for the removal of arsenic at water collection points such as wells, hand-pumps and springs.
• Simple technologies for household removal of arsenic from water are few and have to be adapted to, and proven sustainable in each different setting.
• Some studies have reported preliminary successes in using packets of chemicals for household treatment. Some mixtures combine arsenic removal with disinfection. One example, developed by the WHO/PAHO Pan American Center of Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences in Lima, Peru (CEPIS), has proven successful in Latin America.

Chemical safety

Chemical Safety is achieved by undertaking all activities involving chemicals in such a way as to ensure the safety of human health and the environment. It covers all chemicals, natural and manufactured, and the full range of exposure situations from the natural presence of chemicals in the environment to their extraction or synthesis, industrial production, transport use and disposal.

Chemical safety has many scientific and technical components. Among these are toxicology, ecotoxicology and the process of chemical risk assessment which requires a detailed knowledge of exposure and of biological effects.

Dioxins and their effects on human health

Background

Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They have the dubious distinction of belonging to the “dirty dozen” - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants. Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential. Experiments have shown they affect a number of organs and systems. Once dioxins have entered the body, they endure a long time because of their chemical stability and their ability to be absorbed by fat tissue, where they are then stored in the body. Their half-life in the body is estimated to be seven to eleven years. In the environment, dioxins tend to accumulate in the food chain. The higher in the animal food chain one goes, the higher is the concentration of dioxins.

The chemical name for dioxin is: 2,3,7,8- tetrachlorodibenzo para dioxin (TCDD). The name ‘dioxins’ is often used for the family of structurally and chemically related polychlorinated dibenzo para dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Certain dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) with similar toxic properties are also included under the term “dioxins”. Some 419 types of dioxin-related compounds have been identified but only about 30 of these are considered to have significant toxicity, with TCDD being the most toxic.

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Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, which vary in severity and frequency from person to person. During an asthma attack, the lining of the bronchial tubes swells, causing the airways to narrow and reducing the flow of air into and out of the lungs.

The causes of asthma are not completely understood. However, risk factors for developing asthma include inhaling asthma “triggers”, such as allergens, tobacco smoke and chemical irritants. Asthma cannot be cured, but appropriate management can control the disorder and enable people to enjoy a good quality of life.

Key facts

Facts about asthma

Reducing the asthma burden

The causes

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Cataract develops clounding on eye sight

A Cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelop, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light. Early in the delopment of age related cataract the power of the lens may be increased, causing near sightedness (myopia), and the gradual yellowing and opacification of the lens may reduce the perception of blue colors Cataracts typically progress slowly to cause vision loss and are potentially blinding if untreated.

A senile cataract, occuring in the aged, is characterized by an initial opacity in the lens, subsequent swelling of the lens and final shrinkage with complete loss of transparency. More over with time the cataract cortex liquefies to form a milky white fluid in a Morgagnian cataract, which can cause severe inflammation if the lens capsule ruptures and leaks, untreated the cataract can cause glaucoma.

Causes : Cataracts develop from a variety of reasons, including long term ultraviolet exposure, exposure to radiation, secondary effects of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and advanced age. They are usually a result of maturation of lens protiens. Genetic factors are often a cause of congenital cataracts and positive family history may also play a role in predisposing someone to cataracts at an earlier age, a phenomenon of "anticipation" in pre-senile cataracts. Cataracts may also be produced by eye injury or physical trauma.

Treatment: Cataract operations are usually performed using a local anesthetic and the patient is allowed to go home the same day.

All that I like: Why do we light a lamp?

All that I like: Why do we light a lamp?

Eating for Good Health

For keeping good health the optimistic way is to eat perfectly. Choose your diet optimistically.
The sense of taste, in its higher, more refined state, is capable of discerning what the body most needs at any given time. However, when blunted or debased, it discerns not what is wholesome in a given moment, but what is tasty, or even what will feed a health-undermining craving. A de-based sense of taste can be redeemed, returned to its higher purpose.

There are different times of the day when the body craves different elements. It varies with each individual, but there is also a general pattern.In the morning, the body most craves whole grain; at noon raw vegetables; in the evening lightly cooked vegetables, with greens as a staple nutrient-bearer.

The more “live” a vegetable or fruit is, the more enhanced is its etheric energy, the life force of the plant world. However, predominantly raw food diets are met best by a healthy etheric force in the individual eating them. If one’s etheric is depleted, by either a temporary, or long-term ailment, lightly cooked foods are easier to assimilate. For most people a balance of raw and cooked works best.

Experiments with live foods (raw, sprouted, and such) show that graying hair can be reversed. Also, there are numerous accounts of the reversal of debilitating illnesses. Plants can be looked at as the inverse of the human form. Root - headStem, leaves, - rhythmic systemFlowers, fruits - metabolic.

If a person is suffering from an ailment that resides principally in the head region - headaches, etc - then the body will benefit from ingesting more root vegetables. If the lungs or heart are an issue, then more of leafy and stem parts of the plant. And if the issue entails the metabolic organs, or limb system, then the body can benefit from more fruits and “flower” vegetable portions - such as broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

The potato is not a root, but a tuber. Roots are far more optimal for nutrient needs.The potato feeds a part of the brain that causes one to become more materialistic in one’s thinking. Further, potatoes are debilitating in a general way, and also specifically debilitating for eyesight. One would make out better if one ate the skins of potatoes and threw away the white portions - but unfortunately, the other way around is the usual custom.