Feces thallium

Tb allium, which does not occur naturaHy in normal tissue, is not essential to mammals but does accumulate in the human body. Levels as low as 0.5 mg/100 g of tissue suggest thallium intoxication. Based on industrial experience, 0.10 mg /m of thallium in air is considered safe for a 40-h work week (37). The lethal dose for humans is not definitely known, but 1 g of absorbed thallium is considered sufficient to kHl an adult and 10 mg/kg body weight has been fatal to children. In severe cases of poisoning, death does not occur earlier than 8—10 d but most frequently in 10—12 d. Tb allium excretion is slow and prolonged. For example, tb allium is present in the feces 35 d after exposure and persists in the urine for up to three months. 

Gregus and Klaassen carried out a comparative study of fecal and urinary excretion and tissue distribution of eighteen metals in rats after intravenous injection. Total (fecal + urinary) excretion was relatively rapid (over 50% of the dose in 4 days) for cobalt, silver and manganese between 50 and 20% for copper, thallium, bismuth, lead, cesium, gold, zinc, mercury, selenium and chromium and below 20% for arsenic, cadmium, iron, methylmercury and tin. Feces was the predominant route of excretion for silver, manganese, copper, thallium, lead, zinc, cadmium, iron and methylmercury whereas urine was the predominant route of excretion of cobalt, cesium, gold, selenium, arsenic and tin. Most of the metals reached the highest concentration in liver and kidney. However, there was no... 

Reported values for the normal thallium content of human body fluids and tissues are listed in Table 22.1. These data include only reliable results that were obtained using adequate analytical methods and with sufficient numbers of participants. The data may serve as reference values for unexposed individuals, and may also be used for environmental or toxicological diagnostic purposes. Background thallium concentrations in other human tissues may be classified only as indicative of T1 exposure liver <0.4 to 0.9 pgg dry weight (Johnson 1976), and feces < 0.02... 

The major pathway of elimination of thallium is urine, but the feces and saliva also contribute... 

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