Seleniferous area

Data on selenium in water are limited. The drinking water content is usually less than 1 )-lg/L, and seldom exceeds the 50 )-lg/L upper limit estabhshed in 1993 by the U.S. EPA (23). It may be higher in wells in seleniferous areas, and markedly higher in some river waters where irrigation drainage from seleniferous soil contains up to 2680 )-lg/L. 

Anthropogenic activities (including fossil fuel combustion and metal smelting) and naturally seleniferous areas pose the greatest hazards to fish and wildlife. 

Yang, G., Zhou, R., Yin, S., Gu, L., Liu, Y., and Liu, X. 1989a. Studies of safe maximal dietary Se intake in a seleniferous area in China. I. Selenium intake and tissue selenium levels of the inhabitants. J. Trace Elem. Electrol. Health Dis. 3, 77-89. 

The Colorado River catchment, Utah, USA is also a seleniferous area. Median selenium concentrations in the Colorado River and its major tributaries are in the range 1 -4 p,g (Engberg, 1999), although values up to 400p.gL have... 

Yang G, Zhou R. Further observations on the human maximum safe dietary selenium intake in a seleniferous area of China. J Trace Elem Electroly in Health Dis 1994 8 159-65. 

Bratter P, Negretti De Bratter VE, Jaffe WG, et al. 1991a. Selenium status of children living in seleniferous areas of Venezuela. J Trace Elem Electrolytes Health Dis 5 269-270. 

Longnecker MP, Taylor PR, Levander OA, et al. 1991. Selenium in diet, blood, and toenails in relation to human health in a seleniferous area. Am J Clin Nutr 53(5) 1288-1294. 

Yang G, Yin S, Zhou R, et al. 1989a. Studies of safe maximal daily dietary Se-intake in a seleniferous area in China. II. Relation between Se-intake and the manifestation of clinical signs and certain biochemical alterations in blood and urine [published erratum appears in J Trace Elem Electrolytes Health Dis 1989 Dec 3(4) 250]. J Trace Elem Electrolytes Health Dis 3(3) 123-130. 

Although chronic toxicity due to inhalation or absorption of selenium is usually seen only in industry, cases of chronic poisoning in seleniferous areas (for instance, the Enshi region in China) have been studied and attributed to consumption of food contaminated with selenium (NAS 1976, Glover et al. 1979, Newland 1982, Olson 1986, Einbrodt and Michels 1984, WHO... 

The history of toxicity syndromes related to excessive Se intake has been reviewed [38]. Three syndromes found in farm animals in seleniferous areas are (1) acute selenosis, from consumption of highly seleniferous plants that produced severe symptoms and death in a few hours (2) chronic selenosis, from moderately toxic amounts of these plants eaten over a considerable period of time, resulting in blind staggers and often death and (3) chronic selenosis, where forages containing lesser but still excessive levels of selenium ( 5-30 ppm Se) were eaten over a period of weeks or months. From this syndrome, alkali disease resulted in which signs of the disease included hair loss, malformed hooves, lameness, and emaciation. 

Sharma N, Prakash R, Srivastava A, Sadana US, Acharya R, Prakash NT, Reddy AVR (2009) Profile of selenitrm in soil and crops in seleniferous area of Punjab, India by neutron activation analysis. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 281 59-62... 

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