Laboratory of Ecology & Eco technology, School of Biosciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India.
Department of Zoology, Assumption College, Changanacherry, Kottayam, Kerala, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2018 Mar;25(8):7946-7953. doi: 10.1007/s11356-017-1112-x. Epub 2018 Jan 4.
Toxic heavy metals such as arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) are systemic toxicants that are hazardous to human health. However, as these elements are increasing in the environment due to fast urbanization, industrialization, and chemicalized agricultural activities, accumulation of the same in human body anywhere in the world is quite interesting to global assessment of environment quality. In this connection, random examination of blood samples of human population in Kerala, South India, was carried out to assess the threat of heavy metal contamination to humans in this part of the globe, especially in relation to the amount of such metals in food and other environmental samples. Except pure vegetarians, people of Kerala consume rice as the staple food with a lot of fish. Therefore, the amount of these three heavy metals in drinking water, fish, rice, and paddy soils was done. Heavy metals in the blood were examined in relation to age, gender, and dietary habits such as frequency of fish eating or vegetarianism. Influence of dental amalgam fillings on blood mercury levels was also analyzed. Quantitative assessment of metals in samples was done by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The levels of arsenic, lead, and mercury were found well below the reference values, though diet seemed to pull them up as the amount of metals in blood showed significant differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Evidence to the influence of dental amalgam fillings on blood mercury levels could not be established with the present samples.
有毒重金属如砷（As）、铅（Pb）和汞（Hg）是对人类健康有害的全身性毒物。然而，由于这些元素在环境中由于快速城市化、工业化和化学农业活动而增加，因此在世界任何地方在人体中积累相同的元素对于全球环境质量评估都是非常有趣的。在这方面，对印度南部喀拉拉邦的人类血液样本进行了随机检查，以评估重金属污染对全球这一地区人类的威胁，特别是与食品和其他环境样本中的这些金属含量有关。除了纯素食者外，喀拉拉邦的人们以大米为主食，还食用大量的鱼。因此，对饮用水、鱼类、大米和稻田土壤中的这三种重金属进行了研究。还检查了血液中重金属与年龄、性别和饮食习惯（如吃鱼或素食的频率）之间的关系。还分析了牙汞合金填充物对血液中汞水平的影响。通过电感耦合等离子体质谱法（ICP-MS）对样品中的金属进行了定量评估。尽管饮食似乎会使血液中的金属含量上升，因为血液中的金属含量在素食者和非素食者之间存在显著差异，但砷、铅和汞的水平都远低于参考值。目前的样本无法证明牙汞合金填充物对血液中汞水平的影响。
