title: Lessons from case studies of metals: investigating exposure, bioavailability, and risk.
abstract: Since metals are widely distributed in environmental matrices, humans are exposed to them by either anthropogenic activities or inadvertently by necessity. Selected metals: arsenic, mercury, iron, tin, lead and chromium were chosen on the basis of their economic and public health importance to illustrate the diversity of exposure pathways and differences in factors governing bioavailability. Bioavailability is central to the toxicity of metals and this is discussed from the health risk paradigm standpoint of risk assessment and risk management and the impacts of including or excluding bioavailability in such assessment. The lessons from the case studies of arsenic, mercury, tin and chromium provide a unified concept of methods that can be used in investigating and controlling outbreaks due to metal poisoning in other similar situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evidence & Information for Policy, World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia, Indraprastha Estate, Ring Road, NewDelhi 110 002, India. caussyd@whosea.org
authors.forename: Deoraj
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caussy
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gochfeld
authors.forename: Eugen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gurzau
authors.forename: Corneliu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neagu
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ruedel
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000506:poisoning* / Q000633:toxicity; D000075322:Heavy Metal Poisoning; D006801:Humans; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000633:toxicity; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D019216:Metals, Heavy