Health related applications

Laboratory analysis of human samples for trace contaminants or their metabolites inevitably produces results that deviate quantitatively from the actual concentrations. Such deviations can, for example, complicate exposure classifications in epidemiologic studies, detection of time trends in exposure, and comparison of studies that use data produced with different analytic methods. Individual laboratories can use standard QA-QC methods to minimize and define the magnitude of the variations. However, federal agencies and statutes, such as CDC, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and statutes such as CLIA, could play important roles in improving the overall quality of biomonitoring laboratory data and their utility in health-related applications. 

Nutritional and health-related applications. Lecithin has long been known in the worldwide nutritional community. Dietary supplement lecithin is generally derived from soybean lecithin. Because of its composition of various phospholipids, vitamins, and fatty acids, lecithin is involved in numerous physiological actions that... 

Describe a medicinal or health-related application for each of the following compounds NaF, Li2C03, Mg(OH)2, CaC03, BaS04, Al(0H)2NaC03 (see p. 633). 

The detection of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas has attracted attention in the context of global warming, biological and health-related applications, such as indoor air quality control, process control in fermentation and in the measurement of CO2 concentrations in the exhaled breath of patients with lung and stomach diseases (Machado et aL, 2005 Namjou et aL, 2006 Thorpe et al., 2006 Thorpe et aL, 2008). In medical applications, it can be critical in hospital to monitor the CO2 and Oj concentrations in the circulatory systems of patients with lung diseases. The current technology for CO2 measurement typically uses IR instruments, which can be very expensive and bulky. 

It should be emphasised and noted here, that the use of plastics should not automatically mean that its use always will result in adverse health effects. In fact, there are a number of different plastics being used safely in many critical health related applications such as food packaging materials and in the health sector directly, as blood bags and dialysis equipment tubing, which shows that in most cases it is not the plastic itself but the additives and other foreign chemicals that are added to the plastic which can pose health hazards and should therefore be considered carefully, as discussed in previous chapters. 

Chemistry Around Us. These boxed features present everyday applications of chemistry that emphasize in a real way the important role of chemistry in our lives. Forty percent of these are new to this edition and emphasize health-related applications of chemistry. 

Location-based entertainment robotics, such as robotic museum tour guides, not only entertain visitors, but also provide them with information (Nouibakhsh et al., 1999). Health-related applications are being explored, such as robotic pet-therapy surrogates intended to provide the same health benefits as their living counterparts. Even robots for scientific purposes are begiiming to have more socially interactive qualities. For instance, NASA Johnson Space Center s humanoid robot, Robonaut, is ultimately envisioned to be a completely autonomous astronaut s assistant that can work as a productive and cooperative member of a human-robot team (Bluethman et al., 2003). 

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