Harm when food has a lot of heavy metals

Heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, zinc, tin . if residues in food are too high, it will harm consumers. First manifestations are chronic or acute poisoning.

For consumers:

- Heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, zinc, tin . if residues in food are too high, it will harm consumers. (Photo: willowspringscabins) Acute toxic effects, such as high doses of arsenic, can cause fatal poisoning.

Chronic or cumulative toxic effects such as small doses daily, continuously, after a while cause lead poisoning, very difficult to cure.

For food:

Damaging food, for example, only copper spots are enough to stimulate oxidation and self oxidation of grease .

Reducing the nutritional value of food, for example, only heavy metal stains are enough to stimulate decomposition of Vtamin C, vitamin B1 .

Here are some of the heavy metals commonly found in food and only pay attention to their toxic properties.

ASEN (AS)

Arsenic is not considered an essential mineral. Inorganic compounds of arsenic in high doses, very toxic. Arsenic poisoning is mainly acute poisoning: with a dose of 0.06g AS203 has been poisoned, with 0.15g / person can be killed. Acute poisoning is caused by mistakenly eating food contaminated with arsenic .

In humans, poisoning is often caused by arsenic accumulation in the body, results of occupational diseases, or food and drink contaminated with arsenic during industrial processing. Therefore, each type of food is prescribed to have the maximum amount of arsenic allowed, for example:

- Fruits have a maximum of 1.4ppm As.

- Tin used to make food containers can only have a maximum of 0.001 ppm As. aluminum under 0.0016ppm As.

The maximum acceptable daily dose of arsenic (As) for humans is 0.05 mg / kg body weight.

Symptoms of acute poisoning such as cholera, appear very quickly, sometimes after eating arsenic. Victims of vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, intense thirst, weak pulse, pale face and bruising, squash, death after 24 hours.

Chronic poisoning due to the accumulation of small doses of arsenic for a long time, symptomatic: gray face, hair loss, gastritis and intestinal infection, eye pain, earache, feeling of confusion, mobility Arsenic in urine weakens, is weak, exhausted, dies after months or years.

Lead (PB)

Lead is an unnecessary component of the diet. On average, lead dose due to food and drink provided for daily diets from 0.0033 to 0.005 mg / kg body weight. That is, an adult consumes an average of 0.25 to 0.35mg of lead per day. At that dose, the accumulated lead content will gradually increase with age, but so far there is no evidence that the accumulation of such doses can be toxic to normal healthy people.

The maximum daily dose of lead (Pb) acceptable to humans, provided by food, is temporarily prescribed as 0.005 mg / kg body weight.

Acute poisoning due to lead is less common. Arena poisoning is caused by ingesting foods that contain a lot of lead, although few but constant daily. Just daily the body absorbs 1 mg of lead or more, after a few years, there will be specific symptoms: rotten breath, gingivitis with black border in gums, yellow skin, severe abdominal pain, constipation , joint pain, paralysis of the upper limbs (deformed hands), weak blood vessels, low urine, in urine there are poephyrin, women are prone to miscarriage.

Mercury (HG)

Mercury does not have the necessary function in human body metabolism and often has very little in vegetable and fruit foods. If food with mercury is very harmful to human health. Therefore, it is necessary to keep food and vegetables without mercury even at very low levels.

Copper (CU)

Copper is an essential component of the body due to daily intake of 0.033 to 0.05 mg / kg body weight. At this dose, people do not see the accumulation of Cu in the normal human body.

Up to a certain concentration, even if the copper spots can affect the taste and nutritional value of the food, for example, stimulate the oxidation of fats and oils quickly become rancid, accelerate the breakdown. cancel vitamins .

The daily accepted human dose is 0.5 mg / kg body weight. This dose is not worrisome given that the concentration of molybdenum and zinc in food, should not exceed the normal limit, because these substances affect the metabolism of copper in the human body. Copper does not cause cumulative poisoning, but if you eat a large amount of copper salt, you have an acute poisoning. Symptoms immediately manifest as vomiting and thus, escaping most of the copper is eaten. Also, there is little chance of death due to copper poisoning. The copper-specific vomit of the copper, after vomiting, still continues to spurt, and for a long time there is still aftertaste copper in the mouth.

Zinc (ZN)

Zinc is a natural component of food and is essential for human life. A daily serving of 0.17 to 0.25 mg Zn / kg body weight.

In general, all types of animals tolerate zinc and metal, which are less toxic if the content is low and the diet is high in copper and iron and is influenced by other factors.

Because there is a limit to ensuring the concentration of zinc in normal diets, the amount of zinc can cause toxicity due to accumulation, so with zinc content is limited in food ( 5 to 10 ppm) does not affect consumer health. Zinc poisoning is also acute poisoning, due to a large amount of zinc ingestion (5-10g ZNSO4 or 3-5ZnCl2) can be fatal with symptoms such as persistent and persistent metallic taste in the mouth. , vomiting, diarrhea, cold sweat, pulsing pulse, death after 10 to 48 seconds.

Tin (ZN)

Tin is a normal component of the diet, has no physiological function, but its toxicity is very low. The amount of tin in food is often regulated to allow from 100 to 200mg / kg of product. Usually less than 100 mg of food has an unpleasant metallic taste, and as such has not reached the sensory status.