ABSTRACT
Infants and young children commonly consume apple-based products, which may contain high concentrations of inorganic arsenic (iAs). As yet, iAs exposure from ingesting apple products has not been well-characterized in early childhood. Therefore, we investigated the association between urinary arsenic concentrations and intake of apple products in one-year-old infants participating in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study. A three-day food diary prior to collection of a spot urine sample was used to determine infant's consumption of apple products. The sum of urinary iAs, monomethylarsonic acid, and dimethylarsinic acid, referred to as ΣAs, was used to estimate iAs exposure. A total of 242 infants had urinary arsenic speciation analyzed without indication of fish/seafood consumption (urinary arsenobetaine < 1 µg/L) and with a completed three-day food diary. Of these, 183 (76%) infants ate apples or products containing apple. The geometric mean urinary ΣAs among the 59 infants who did not consume any type of apple product was 2.78 µg/L as compared to 2.38, 2.46, 2.28, and 2.73 µg/L among infants who exclusively consumed apple juice (n = 30), apple puree (n = 67), apples as whole fruit (n = 20) or products mixed with apples (n = 21), respectively. Differences in urinary ΣAs associated with apple consumption were not statistically significant in generalized linear models adjusted for urine dilution, rice consumption, and household water arsenic. Thus, while infants in our study frequently consumed apples and apple products, we did not find evidence that it increased iAs exposure.
Subject(s)
Diagnosis-Related Groups , Hospitals, Community/economics , Nutrition Disorders/diagnosis , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Humans , Massachusetts/epidemiology , Medicare , Morbidity , Nutrition Assessment , Nutrition Disorders/epidemiology , Pilot Projects , Prevalence , Retrospective Studies , United States , Weight LossABSTRACT
Total serum proteins were evaluated and serum protein electrophoresis performed on 3 500 blood donors after plasmapheresis. The results were standard for total serum proteins, serum albumin and immunoglobulin in 98% of the donors, whereas monoclonal immunoglobulin, immunodeficiencies or polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia were detected in 2% of them. The frequency of monoclonal components is roughly 0.3%, corresponding to the frequency observed in normal adults of 40 to 60 years old. Donors found with monoclonal immunoglobulins or immunodeficiency should not be considered as eligible for blood donation.
