Foods contamination

Review reported cases to determine time and place of exposure and population at risk. Obtain a complete list of foods served. 

Collect samples of vomit and feces for laboratory testing and inform the laboratory of suspected contaminants. 

Compare illness rates for specific foods eaten and those not eaten. 

Investigate the source of suspected food and methods of preparation and storage. 

Look for possible sources of contamination and inadequate refrigeration or beating. 

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Botulism is a disease caused by ingestion of foods contaminated with Clostridium botulinum (food-borne botulism) or, very rarely, by wound infection (wound botulism) or colonization of the intestinal tract with Clostridium botulinum (infant botulism). The toxins block the release of acetylcholine. Botulism is characterized by generalized muscular weakness, which first affects eye and throat muscles and later extends to all skeletal muscles. Flaccid paralysis can lead to respiratory failure. 

The most likely way for people to be exposed to endosulfan is by eating food contaminated with it. Endosulfan has been found in some food products such as oils, fats, and fruit and vegetable... 

Children can be exposed to endosulfan by eating food contaminated with the pesticide, by accidentally ingesting the pesticide if it is stored around the house, or by breathing air contaminated with the pesticide if it is sprayed on nearby fields. There are no known unique exposure pathways for children. We do not know if children s intake of endosulfan per kilogram of body weight is different than that of adults. 

BEIs apply to 8 hr exposures, five days a week. However, BEIs for altered working schedules can be extrapolated on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic bases. BEIs should not be applied, either directly or through a conversion factor, to the determination of safe levels for non-occupational exposure to air and water pollutants, or food contaminants. The BEIs are not intended for use as a measure of adverse effects or for diagnosis of occupational illness. 

In a clinical trial performed in China, the administration of 300 mg/day of copper chlorophyllin to humans who had detectable levels of serum aflatoxin due to unavoidable food contamination resnlted in a 50% reduction of median urinary levels of aflatoxin-DNA adducts. If health benefits from consuming natural chlorophylls were confirmed, it wonld be easy to add green leafy vegetables to a daily diet to obtain the benefit. Since leafy vegetables contain usually up to 200 mg chloro-phylls/100 g fresh weight, the intake of approximately 1 to 2 cups of raw spinach/day... 

Cholera, the first reportable disease, is endemic in South Asia, particularly in the Ganges delta region.2 The biotypes of Vibrio cholerae responsible for pandemics are serogroup 01 (El Tor) and serogroup 0139.16,17 Cholera can be transmitted by water or by food contaminated with contaminated water, particularly undercooked seafood. V. cholerae grows well in warm temperatures, causing marked seasonality in the incidence of cholera.2... 

On-line NPLC-GC-FID and/or FUR analysis has been used in discriminating between paraffin waxes and paraffin oils present in, or migrating between, food packaging and food simulants FID was used for quantitation [967]. In a typical application, online coupled LC-GC-F1D has also been used for the analysis of food contamination by mineral oil from printed cardboard [968]. The technique has revealed that many foods are contaminated with mineral oil products. Grob et al. [969] have determined mineral oil in canned food by on-line LC-LC-GC-F1D. DEHP was determined in salad oil by means of conventional LC-GC [970]. HPLC-GC-MS/MS (ion trap) can serve highly useful purposes in areas of applications such as impurity... 

Adachi, K., Mass fragmentographic determination of polymethylbiphenyl in foods contaminated with petroleum products, Bull. Environ. Contain. Toxicol., 26, 737, 1981. (CA95 113485s)... 

Acute poisoning in the household by actual ingestion or food contamination... 

For human health risk assessment, it is necessary to elaborate realistic scenarios. Knowledge of real scenarios where the contaminant is emitted to the environment will help to obtain information about the fate and transport of the contaminant once emitted to the environment and the route of exposure for the human beings living in this scenario of concern. There are different types of exposure, i.e., direct, indirect (as is the case of food contaminated by the air, water, or soil contaminated by the emission), occupational exposure, and consumer goods coming from outside the scenario of concern. Depending on the objective of the study, it will be necessary to consider in the exposure assessment one or more types of exposure. 

Analysis, Fate and Removal of Pharmaceuticals in the Water Cycle Food Contaminants and Residue Analysis Protein Mass Spectrometry... 

The terrorist attack is very difficult to be predicted and it could be performed everywhere, anytime. A wide range of weapons and methods could be used by the terrorists to achieve their goals. Explosives, guns, chemical and biological agents may be used. Water and food contamination, pollution of air controlled systems and many others could be listed, and the imagination has no limit, as shown by the 9/11 attack. 

Smith, M.E., van Ravenswaay, E.O., and Thompson, S.R. 1988. Sales loss determination in food contamination incidents An application to milk bans in Hawaii. Am. J. Agricult. Econ. 70,... 

Melioidosis Bacterial disease of rodents that can be transmitted to humans via food contaminated by rodent droppings or biting flies. 

Humans acquire cholera by consuming water or food contaminated with the organism. If terrorists were to use cholera bacteria as a weapon, they would most... 

Melioidosis is very similar to glanders. While it usually causes disease in rodents, it can be transmitted to humans via food contaminated by rodent droppings or biting flies. The primary way for terrorists to weaponize melioidosis would be to make it an aerosol. The mortality rate is 95% in untreated acute disease patients. 

The fact that endrin is no longer produced or used in the United States greatly reduces the potential for human exposure. Future levels of endrin, endrin aldehyde, and endrin ketone in environmental media are expected to be low. The most significant route of exposure is most likely ingestion of imported foods contaminated with endrin however, there may also be some localized risks from exposures near waste disposal sites or from groundwater contaminated with endrin. 

Waller K, Prendergast TJ, Slagle A, et al. 1992. Seizures after eating a snack food contaminated with the pesticide endrin The tale of the toxic taquitos. The Western Journal of Medicine 157(6) 648-651. 

Studies in animals show that mirex can be taken into your bloodstream when you breathe in cigarette smoke containing mirex or eat food contaminated with mirex. We do not know if mirex can pass through your skin and enter your body after you touch it. Mirex passes from the stomach and intestines of animals into their blood. We do not know how much passes from the stomach and intestines of people into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, mirex is carried to many parts of the body where it is stored, mainly in fat. Mirex is not broken down in the body. Mirex that is not stored leaves the body unchanged mainly in the faces. Very little leaves the body in the urine. Most of the mirex that is swallowed leaves the body in feces within two days. However, the mirex that enters the bloodstream and is stored in fat leaves the body very slowly. This process can take from several weeks to months. Mirex can also enter breast milk from the bloodstream of nursing mothers who have been exposed. Refer to Chapter 2 for more information on this subject. 

Animal studies show that chlordecone can pass into your blood when you eat food contaminated with it. Animal data show that only a small amount of chlordecone can pass through the skin into the bloodstream. We do not know if or how much chlordecone can pass from your lungs into your blood when you breathe it in. Like mirex, once chlordecone is taken up by your body, it is carried by the blood throughout the body and is stored for a long time. Unlike mirex, chlordecone is found mainly in the liver. Chlordecone is broken down to chlordecone alcohol, which is a less harmful product. Chlordecone and its breakdown product slowly leave the body through the feces. This process can take from several weeks to months. Very little chlordecone leaves the body in the urine. Chlordecone has also been found in saliva and human milk. Refer to Chapter 2 for more information on this subject. 

In another example, urine samples were extracted with MIP phases imprinted with clenbuterol in order to determine the concentration of this (3-agonist, which is known to be misused in animal breeding and thus is occasionally found as a food contaminant. Recovery rates of up to 75% were observed for spiked samples when extracting the clenbuterol. However, in subsequent control experiments clenbuterol was detected also in non-spiked blank urine samples, and further experiments lead to the conclusion that the clenbuterol used as template permanently bled from the Mi-polymer. Consequently, the authors decided to use in the future a structural analogue as template instead of clenbuterol in order to avoid this problem [44]. 

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