scholarly journals Human Health Effects of Dietary Aluminum

Author(s):  
Karine Landry

<p>Aluminum is abundant in the environment and can also be found in most foods. To date, no convincing data has been found regarding the possible risk of ingesting aluminum through food, water and pharmaceuticals. This paper sought to review current literature to find evidence of the health effects of aluminum absorption in the diet in humans.</p><p>The review found that the evidence is contradictory and as such, there is no established causation between dietary aluminum and adverse health effects. Many studies suggest a relationship between aluminum consumption and Alzheimer’s disease, but here again, the results are inconsistent. More research is needed to establish the risk of daily ingestion of aluminum through the diet, drinking water and the use of pharmaceuticals. Further research should be conducted on subpopulation groups, such as children, chronic pharmaceutical drug users and other vulnerable groups.</p>

Author(s):  
Holly Ching Yu Lam ◽  
Zhe Huang ◽  
Sida Liu ◽  
Chunlan Guo ◽  
William Bernard Goggins ◽  
...  

Background: Despite larger health burdens attributed to cold than heat, few studies have examined personal cold protection behaviours (PCPB). This study examined PCPB during cold waves and identified the associated factors in a subtropical city for those without central heating system. Methods: A cohort telephone survey was conducted in Hong Kong during a colder cold wave (2016) and a warmer cold wave (2017) among adults (≥15). Socio-demographic information, risk perception, self-reported adverse health effects and patterns of PCPB during cold waves were collected. Associated factors of PCPB in 2017 were identified using multiple logistic regression. Results: The cohort included 429 subjects. PCPB uptake rates were higher during the colder cold wave (p < 0.0005) except for ensuring indoor ventilation. Of the vulnerable groups, 63.7% had low self-perceived health risks. High risk perception, experience of adverse health effects during the 2016 cold wave, females and older groups were positive associated factors of PCPB in 2017 (p < 0.05). Conclusions: PCPB changed with self-risk perception. However vulnerable groups commonly underestimated their own risk. Indoor ventilation may be a concern during cold days in settings that are less prepared for cold weather. Targeted awareness-raising promotion for vulnerable groups and practical strategies for ensuring indoor ventilation are needed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunn Marit Aasvang ◽  
Norun Hjertager Krog

<span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><p align="left">Denne artikkelen oppsummerer eksisterende kunnskap om helsevirkninger av miljøstøy. Nedsatt hørsel som følge av eksponering for høye lydnivåer blant annet i yrkessammenheng er godt dokumentert, og vil ikke omtales i særlig grad. Denne artikkelen vil først og fremst fokusere på ikke-hørselsrelaterte virkninger av den støy som vi har i omgivelsene, hvor de vanligste støykildene er fra samferdsel og industri. Selv om støyens virkninger på spesielt sårbare grupper, som for eksempel barn, er et viktig tema, vil helsevirkningene som omtales her først og fremst være gjeldende for en generell voksen befolkning. Negative helseeffekter av støy er knyttet til støy som en fysiologisk aktiverende stressfaktor som påvirker adferd, trivsel, kommunikasjon, hvile og søvn. Nyere studier antyder også en sammenheng mellom støy og økt risiko for hjerte-karsykdom.</p><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><p align="left">This paper summarises existing knowledge about health effects of environmental noise. Reduced hearing due to exposure to high sound pressure levels, for instance in the work-place, is well documented, and is not a topic of this presentation. The paper focuses on non-audiological effects of environmental noise. Although effects of noise on especially vulnerable groups such as children are important issues, this article focuses on the effects that can be demonstrated in the general population. The most common sources of environmental noise are transport and industry. Adverse health effects are related to noise as a physiologically activating stress factor that influences behaviour, well-being, rest and sleep. Some recent studies do also indicate that there may be a relationship between noise and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.</p></span></span></span></span>


Author(s):  
Faidon Magkos ◽  
Inge Tetens ◽  
Susanne Gjedsted Bügel ◽  
Claus Felby ◽  
Simon Rønnow Schacht ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Current dietary guidelines advocate more plant-based, sustainable diets on the basis of scientific evidence about diet–health relations but also to address environmental concerns. Here, we critically review the effects of plant-based diets on the prevalence of obesity and other health outcomes. Plant-based diets per se have limited efficacy for the prevention and treatment of obesity, but most have beneficial effects in terms of chronic disease risk. However, with the considerable possibilities of translating plant-based diets into various types of dietary patterns, our analysis suggests that potential adverse health effects should also be considered in relation to vulnerable groups of the population. A transition to more plant-based diets may exert beneficial effects on the environment, but is unlikely to affect obesity, and may also have adverse health effects if this change is made without careful consideration of the nutritional needs of the individual relative to the adequacy of the dietary intake.


1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heraline E. Hicks

The Great Lakes are collectively the largest inland body of freshwater on this planet. For more than two hundred years, the Great Lakes basin has been used as a resource for industry, agriculture, shipping, and recreation. The physical characteristics of the basin and the long retention time of chemicals in the lakes combine to make this huge freshwater resource a repository for chemical by-products of these activities. Many of the more than one thousand chemicals detected in the waters, sediment, or biota of the Great Lakes have known toxic effects. This overview will identify the 11 most persistent toxic chemicals known as "critical" Great Lakes pollutants. It also will describe some of the adverse health effects that have been observed in fish and other wildlife because of exposure to these pollutants. Finally. it will discuss some of the early human health studies that 1) have demonstrated a correlation between increased body burdens and fish consumption, and 2) suggest an association between consumption of contaminated Great Lakes fish and adverse human health effects.


Author(s):  
K. . Togawa

Agricultural workers can be exposed to a wide variety of agents (e.g. pesticides), some of which may have adverse health effects, such as cancer. To study the health effects of agricultural exposures, an international consortium of agricultural cohort studies, AGRICOH, was established. The present analysis compared cancer incidence between the AGRICOH cohorts and the general population and found lower overall cancer incidence in the AGRICOH cohorts, with some variation across cohorts for specific cancer types. The observed lower cancer incidence may be due to healthy worker bias or lower prevalence of risk factors in the agricultural populations. Further analysis is underway.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. e044833
Author(s):  
Gabriel Silver ◽  
Yordanka Krastev ◽  
Miriam K Forbes ◽  
Brenton Hamdorf ◽  
Barry Lewis ◽  
...  

IntroductionPerfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse group of compounds that have been used in hundreds of industrial applications and consumer products including aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) for many years. Multiple national and international health and environmental agencies have accepted that PFAS exposures are associated with numerous adverse health effects. Australian firefighters have been shown to have elevated levels of PFAS in their blood, specifically perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), due to the historical use of AFFF. While PFAS concentrations decline over time once the source of exposure has been removed, their potential adverse health effects are such that it would be prudent to develop an intervention to lower levels at a faster rate than occurs via natural elimination rates.Methods and analysisThis is a randomised controlled trial of current and former Australian firefighters in the Metropolitan Fire Brigade/Fire Rescue Victoria, and contractors, with previous occupational exposure to PFAS and baseline elevated PFOS levels. The study is investigating whether whole blood donation every 12 weeks or plasma donation every 6 weeks will significantly reduce PFAS levels, compared with a control group. We have used covariate-adaptive randomisation to balance participants’ sex and blood PFAS levels between the three groups and would consider a 25% reduction in serum PFOS and PFHxS levels to be potentially clinically significant after 12 months of whole blood or plasma donation. A secondary analysis of health biomarkers is being made of changes between screening and week 52 in all three groups.Ethics and disseminationThis trial has been approved by Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee (reference number: 3855), final protocol V.2 dated 12 June 2019. Study results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences.Trial registration numberAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619000204145).


2021 ◽  
pp. 105971232198909
Author(s):  
Harry Heft

It is usually a mark of good design when technologies and tools that mediate goal-directed action are such that the user’s attentional focus is maintained on the intended ends of action rather than on the technologies and tools themselves. When the mediators become the focus, the continuity of goal-directed action is disrupted, and the flow of action can be re-directed. What then is the purpose of the projects designed by the RAAAF studio, as described by Rietveld, which seem to be intended to do both? Disruption of the continuity of goal-directed perception-action may prompt reflection about the circumstances at work, and in so doing provoke a transformation in habitual patterns of action and of thought. The project “The End of Sitting” is intended to remediate the adverse health effects of standard chair-dominated offices through an unconventional office landscape that prompts intermittent postural readjustments, boosting the levels of activity common in such settings. The project “Bunker 599” demonstrates that seemingly unremarkable features of the landscape can sometimes conceal aspects of culture’s history, and that design can function to draw attention to a hidden and even vanishing history. Design can enrich an individual’s sense of place in a stream of cultural history.


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