RESUMO
Breast milk is the ideal nutrient for the newborn, but unfortunately also a route of excretion for some toxic substances including lead, mercury and cadmium. Very little attention has been paid to breast milk as a source of exposure to these elements. This work aims to determine the blood lead level in exclusively breast fed infants and in their maternal blood and maternal breast milk levels correlating these parameters with possible environmental sources of exposure to lead. Seventy one [71] exclusively breast fed infants were involved and subjected to clinical examination, questionnaire for possible environmental exposure, complete blood count, measurement of lead level in the infants, maternal blood and expressed breast milk spectrophotometricaliy. The mean infant blood lead level was 22.6 +/- 11 micro g/dl. The mean level of breast milk lead was 14.9 +/- 9 micro g/dl and the mean lead level in maternal blood was 21 +/- 12microg/dl. The infant blood lead level was high in 87.3 % of the cases with ' no correlation with maternal blood or breast milk lead levels, or environmental sources of lead exposure
Conclusion: Blood lead level is still considerably high in spite of use of lead free gasoline and new lead free paints. Care should be given to nutritional status of the exclusively breast-fed infants particularly iron status and vitamin supplementation [vitamin C and D] to reduce their absorption of lead. Calcium supplementation to the pregnant and lactating mothers' is mandatory to reduce lead mobilization from bone
RESUMO
The objective of the study is to evaluate the role of tumour necrosis factor Alpha [TNF-alpha] a in the pathogenesis of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis caused by occupational exposure to asbestos fibres by comparing its serum level in exposed versus non-exposed subjects. Twenty workers exposed to asbestos were chosen by simple random sampling and compared to a similar number of controls [unexposed to asbestos]. Both groups were subjected to history taking, clinical examination. TNF-alpha was measured in serum and correlated with possible relevant factors. Data analysis was done by SPSS computer based program. The study showed a significant increase in the level of TNF-alpha in the exposed group as compared to the controls. No correlation was found in the exposed group between the serum TNF-alpha level and respiratory symptoms, signs or disability nor with medical history. Further studies are needed to assess the use of serum TNF-alpha as an early predictor of susceptibility to the effect of asbestos. It could predict those more prone to develop asbestos-induced pulmonary injury. Anti-TNF should be assessed as a possible prevention or treatment for asbestos-induced lung injury