Inner urban setting

A few studies have explored the potential of the toy safety test for screening household dust samples in areas where elevated metal levels are suspected, such as inner urban settings and mining towns. Duggan and Williams (1977) used the standard 0.07 M HCl extraction protocol to determine available Pb in street dust compared to total Pb extracted with aqua regia (HCl/HNOj). Later, Harrison (1979) applied the same approach for the determination of Pb, Cr, Co, Cu, Cd, Ni, and Zn in household and exterior urban dusts. Both studies yielded... 

It is also notable that the numbers of hospitals in urban and rural settings are shrinking. In 1993, there were 3012 urban hospitals and 2249 rural, whereas in 1998, there were 2816 urban and 2199 rural hospitals (13). The numbers of public acute care hospitals decreased from 1390 in 1993 to 1260 in 1997 (8). Closure of hospitals and simultaneous reductions in hospital beds has occurred in inner city areas where care is provided for large numbers of indigent patients. Such closures are related to the high costs of care, which are not concomitantly reimbursed by state and federal sources... 

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