Lead death

Each year, Americans report over three million fires leading to 29,000 injuries and 4,500 deaths (1). The direct property losses exceed 8 biUion (1) and the total annual cost to our society has been estimated at over 100 biUion (2). Personal losses occur mosdy in residences where furniture, wall coverings, and clothes are frequently the fuel. Large financial losses occur in commercial stmctures such as office buildings and warehouses. Fires also occur in airplanes, buses, and trains. 

Fluorides ia small (1 ppm ia water, 0.1% ia dentifrices) quantities have been shown to provide dramatic reduction ia dental decay. Fluorides also show promise for bone treatment and ia pharmaceuticals (qv) (see also Chemotherapeutics, anticancer Steroids). However, larger quantities of fluorides can lead to dental fluorosis, bone fracture, and even death. The oral LD q for free fluoride ion ia rats appears to be 50 to 100 mg/kg body weight based on LD q values for several fluorides. 

Molybdenum, recognized as an essential trace element for plants, animals, and most bacteria, is present in a variety of metaHo enzymes (44—46). Indeed, the absence of Mo, and in particular its co-factor, in humans leads to severe debility or early death (47,48). Molybdenum in the diet has been impHcated as having a role in lowering the incidence of dental caries and in the prevention of certain cancers (49,50). To aid the growth of plants. Mo has been used as a fertilizer and as a coating for legume seeds (51,52) (see FERTILIZERS Mineral NUTRIENTS). 

Aquatic Toxicity. The standard tests to measure the effect of substances on the aquatic environment are designed to deal with those that are reasonably soluble ia water. Unfortunately this is a disadvantage for the primary phthalates because they have a very low water solubiUty (ca 50 p.g/L) and this can lead to erroneous test results. The most common problem is seen ia toxicity tests on daphnia where the poorly water-soluble substance forms a thin film on the water surface within which the daphnia become entrapped and die. These deaths are clearly not due to the toxicity of the substance but due to unsuitable test design. 

Coccidiosis is a proto2oal disease of the intestinal tract of animals that leads to severe loss of productivity and death. The development and widespread use of anticoccidials has revolutionized the poultry industry. The estimated world market for anticoccidial agents in 1989 was 425 million and this was dominated by the polyether ionophore antibiotics monensin, salinomycin [53003-10-4], n imsm [55134-13-9], la.s9locid, and maduramicin [84878-61-5] (26). 

Sodium nitrite is poisonous and prolonged contact with dry sodium nitrite or its solutions can cause irritation to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. The LD q (oral, rat) is 85 mg per kg body weight (11). Inhalation or ingestion of significant quantities of dust or mist may result in acute toxic effects such as nausea, cyanosis, and low blood pressure, which can lead to possible coUapse, coma, and even death. 

Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Human immunodeficiency vims (HIV) causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which has no cure. HIV infects the cells of the human immune system, such as T-lymphocytes, monocytes, and macrophages. After a long period of latency and persistent infection, it results in the progressive decline of the immune system, and leads to full-blown AIDS, resulting in death. 

Miconazole. Miconazole nitrate [22832-87-7] (Fig. 2), the 1-phenethyl-imidazole derivative first described in 1969, interferes at low doses with the cytochrome P-450 dependent ergosterol biosynthesis in yeasts and fungi. The result is accumulation of C-14 methylated sterols on the one hand and reduction of the ergosterol levels in the membranes on the other hand (12). Analogous to clotrimazole, this leads to a disturbance in the membranes it results in inhibition of ceU repHcation, mycelium development (in C. albicans) and finally, ceU death. High concentrations of miconazole, which may be achieved with topical use, disturb the orientation of phosphoHpids in the membranes, which produces leaks (13). 

Calcium is readily abundant in the mammalian diet. A 70 kg human contains approximately 1200 g of calcium and has a daily intake of 1100 mg/day. There are no pubHshed exposure limits (38). Low levels of calcium in the blood, hypocalcemia, can lead to tetany high levels, hypercalcemia, can lead to coma and death. Calcium toxicity, above 160 mg/L in the blood, is not related to an excessive intake of calcium. 

Mammalian Cells Unlike microbial cells, mammalian cells do not continue to reproduce forever. Cancerous cells have lost this natural timing that leads to death after a few dozen generations and continue to multiply indefinitely. Hybridoma cells from the fusion of two mammalian lymphoid cells, one cancerous and the other normal, are important for mammalian cell culture. They produce monoclonal antibodies for research, for affinity methods for biological separations, and for analyses used in the diagnosis and treatment of some diseases. However, the frequency of fusion is low. If the unfused cells are not killed, the myelomas 1 overgrow the hybrid cells. The myelomas can be isolated when there is a defect in their production of enzymes involved in nucleotide synthesis. Mammahan cells can produce the necessary enzymes and thus so can the fused cells. When the cells are placed in a medium in which the enzymes are necessaiy for survival, the myelomas will not survive. The unfused normal cells will die because of their limited life span. Thus, after a period of time, the hybridomas will be the only cells left ahve. 

Sterilization of Media First-order kinetics may be assumed for heat destruction of living matter, and this leads to a linear relationship when logarithm of the fraction surviving is plotted against time. However, nonlogarithmic kinetics of death are quite often found for bacterial spores. One model for such behavior assumes inactivation of spores via a sensitive intermediate state by the mechanism ... 

Air-poUutant effects on neural and sensory functions in humans vary widely. Odorous pollutants cause only minor annoyance yet, if persistent, they can lead to irritation, emotional upset, anorexia, and mental depression. Carbon monoxide can cause death secondary to the depression of the respiratory centers of the central nervous system. Short of death, repeated and prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide can alter sensory protection, temporal perception, and higher mental functions. Lipid-soluble aerosols can enter the body and be absorbed in the lipids of the central nervous system. Once there, their effects may persist long after the initial contact has been removed. Examples of agents of long-term chronic effects are organic phosphate pesticides and aerosols carrying the metals lead, mercury, and cadmium. 

Nowadays the one of the leading cause of death in industrial country is Heart Failure (HF). Under the pathological conditions (e.g., Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD)) the changes in the enzymes activity and ultrastructure of tissue were obtained. The behavior of trace elements may reflect the activity of different types of enzymes. Pathological changes affects only small area of tissue, hence the amount of samples is strictly limited. Thereby, nondestructive multielemental method SRXRF allow to perfonu the analysis of mass samples in a few milligrams, to save the samples, to investigate the elemental distribution on the sample area. 

The use of fire retardants in polymers has become more complicated with the realisation that more deaths are probably caused by smoke and toxic combustion products than by fire itself. The suppression of a fire by the use of fire retardants may well result in smouldering and the production of smoke, rather than complete combustion with little smoke evolution. Furthermore, whilst complete combustion of organic materials leads to the formation of simple molecules such as CO2, H2O, N2, SO2 and hydrogen halides, incomplete combustion leads to the production of more complex and noxious materials as well as the simple structured but highly poisonous hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. 

---