Trace elements in Jamaican tobacco

The concentrations of 28 elements, in hand-made cigars, [quot ]rope[quot ] tobacco and freshly picked tobacco leaves from the parish of Manchester in central Jamaica, were compared with locally packaged and imported cigarettes and cigars. Except for chromium and vanadium, which are lower in the imported products, the elemental concentrations of all the brands sold in Jamaica are rather similar. The means for aluminium, cadmium, caesium, cerium, chromium, iron, thorium, uranium, vanadium and zinc for the Manchester material exceed the maximum values of the other tobaccos. The significant concentrations of heavy metals, and especially cadmium, which is about 50 times that of commercial cigarettes, reflect the known high concentrations in the soils in the region. This tobacco is not filtered and the smoke contains 50 of the cadmium. This, and the concentrations of radioactive elements, may indicate an additional health risk compared with commercial cigarettes. A study of three samples of marijuana indicates a similar level of risk from heavy metals

Thermoluminescence dosimetry in the Caribbean

The results of five years of radiation monitoring of 590 radiation workers in Jamaica and an additional 88 in Barbados and The Turks and Caicos Islands show that the annual dose absorbed by Caribbean radiation workers is, with a single exception, well within the internationally accepted limits of 20 mSv per year. There were few cases of relatively high exposures. The dose equivalent of the radiation workers by category agrees with international trends; workers in nuclear medicine receive the highest doses and dental radiologists the lowest. The collective Effective Dose Equivalent has been calculated for each of the monitored populations and certain trends identified. The risk for development of fatal cancers from the occupational doses reported was very low. Consistent monitoring will identify aberrant conditions quickly and help maintain that record