Helle Margrete Meltzer

View summary

Ener gi drik ker er risikoprodukter som ikke bør inn gå i barn og unges kosthold. På grunn av skadevirkningene bør salg av energidrikker til barn og unge forbys.

View summary

Intake of sufficient amounts of iodine (I) through the diet is essential to prevent iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). Iodine is essential for all metabolic processes in the body and the physiological and neurological development of the fetus and child. Salt iodization is the main strategy for the control of IDD worldwide (WHO & UNICEF 2007). However, in Norway, milk and dairy products, and fish and seafood contributes approximately 80 % of the dietary iodine intake in adults and children (Dahl et al. 2004). The contribution of iodized salt is considered to be insignificant. Sufficient intake of iodine is particularly important for children, which is in the early phase of growth and development, and also for pregnant women as they provide for the fetus. Today, programs for monitoring iodine levels are implemented in most countries to control both IDD and disorders due to excessive iodine intake. Micronutrients, like iodine, are present at variable and often low concentrations in clinical sample types, like urine. Thus, the first aim of the study was to develop a method to get a limit of quantification below 3 μg/L with an uncertainty of less than 10 %. It was also desirable that the working range was linear over a wide area of concentrations as it was expected that the levels of iodine varied a lot from one person to another and also from day to day depending on their diet. Validation parameters that have been determined are linearity, working range, accuracy, precision, robustness, uncertainty, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ). The other aim of the study was to identify the levels of iodine in urine from mothers and their children in the area of Oslo and Akershus in Norway. This is of particular interest because these subgroups of the population are at risk of a too low iodine intake, while data on urinary iodine concentration (UIC) in Norwegian children are missing. The urine samples (n=104) were collected by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), pretreated with an alkaline solution containing ammonia, EDTA, 2-propanol, and Triton X-100, and then analyzed for iodine by ICP-MS with an octopole based collision-reaction cell. The mothers and children also registered their 24-hour food intake as well as smoking habits to investigate their impacts on the levels of iodine. Results from ongoing laboratory work will be presented. References Dahl, L., Johansson, L., Julshamn, K. & Meltzer, H. M. (2004). The iodine content of Norwegian foods and diets. Public Health Nutrition, 7 (4): 569-576. WHO & UNICEF. (2007). Iodine Deficiency in Europe - a continuing public health problem. In Andersson, M., de Benoist, B., Darnton-Hill, I. & Delange, F. (eds), 978 92 4 159396 0. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. 70 pp.

View summary

Norwegian adults are exposed to arsenic (As) mainly through seafood, mostly present in the non-toxic, organic arsenobetaine form. In order to assess the toxicological impact of As intake from seafood on human health, specified data on exposure and excretion of As species are required. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the ratio between total As (tAs) and inorganic As (iAs) species in the urine after consuming a single As-rich meal with selected seafood reflects the ratio in the consumed diet, and to examine how rapidly tAs is cleared from urine and blood plasma. Thirty-eight (28 women, 10 men) healthy, non-smoking Norwegians aged 20-40 years were included in the controlled diet trial and randomised into four groups. After a 7-day run-in period where the subjects refrained from food items high in As (seafood, mushrooms, rice/rice products and dietary supplements), each group consumed an As-rich meal containing either 150 grams of cod (754 _mg tAs, 5 _mg iAs), blue mussel (632 _mg tAs, 14 _mg iAs), salmon (167 _mg tA5 _mg iAs) or potato (control) (< 5 _mg tAs, < 5 _mg iAs). All urine wcollected for 72 h after ingestion of meal and for this period the participants were given an equally, strictly controlled diet low in As (13 _mg tAs on day 0, 87 _mg tAs on day 1 and 18 _mg tAs on day 2, total8 _mg tAs day 0-2). Urinary tAs excreted in urine during 72 h after mel were for the cod group 561 ±87 _mg tAs, the blue mussel group 328 ± 7 _mg tAs the salmon group 161 ± 30 _mg tAs and the control group 49 13 _mg tAs. Pending the results from the analysis, conclusions would b presented at the conference.

View summary

Seafood is the main source of arsenic (As) in the Norwegian diet mostly present in the non-toxic, organic arsenobetaine form. In order to assess the toxicological impact of As intake from seafood on human health, specified data on exposure and excretion of As species are required. The purpose of this study was to investigate the concentrations of inorganic As and total As in the urine of healthy adult persons after a single meal with selected seafood. 41 healthy male and female Norwegians aged 20-40 years were included in the controlled diet trial and randomized into four groups. The participants refrained from any seafood, multivitamins, cod liver oil, mushrooms, rice and rice products 1 week before the study started. Each group ate either 150 grams of cod fillet (320 ?g total As (tAs)), blue mussel (310 ?g tAs), salmon fillet (70 ?g tAs) or potatoes (control, 2 ?g tAs). All urine was collected for 72 h after the seafood meal. In this period all food eaten by the participants were provided. The determination of total As in food and urine was carried out by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the determination of inorganic As in urin is carried out by gradient elution anion exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with ICP-MS.