Cadmium, total mercury, and lead in blood and associations with diet, sociodemographic factors, and smoking in Swedish adolescents.

Background: Despite their vulnerability to the toxic effects of certain metals, biomonitoring data on adolescents are limited. In the present study, we assessed blood concentrations of toxic metals (cadmium [Cd], total mercury [Hg], and lead [Pb] in a national representative sample of Swedish adolescents. We also examined the associations of Cd, total Hg and Pb with habitual intakes of major energy-providing food groups and other possible determinants such as age, sex, household education, Nordic or non-Nordic origin, and smoking.

Inorganic arsenic in food products on the Swedish market and a risk-based intake assessment.

Inorganic arsenic (iAs) and total arsenic (tAs) were determined in common food from the Swedish market. Special focus was on rice, fish and shellfish products. For the speciation of iAs the European standard EN:16802 based on anion exchange chromatography coupled to ICP-MS was used.

PCDD/F, PCB, PBDE, HBCD and chlorinated pesticides in a Swedish market basket from 2005--levels and dietary intake estimations.

Based on consumption data statistics, food items from four regions in Sweden were sampled in a so-called market basket study. Food items from five food groups, i.e.

Fish consumption as a source of human exposure to perfluorinated alkyl substances in Sweden - analysis of edible fish from Lake Vättern and the Baltic Sea.

Perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) were analyzed in muscle tissue from edible fish species caught in the second largest freshwater lake in Sweden, Lake Vättern (LV), and in the brackish water Baltic Sea (BS). Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was the predominant PFAS found. PFOS concentrations were higher in LV (medians 2.

Declining levels of PCB, HCB and p,p'-DDE in adipose tissue from food producing bovines and swine in Sweden 1991-2004.

The official control programme for organochlorine (OC) contaminants in food producing animals in Sweden was used to study temporal and spatial trends of the polychlorinated biphenyl CB 153, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and p,p'-DDE in adipose tissue from bovines and swine 1991-2004. Our results show that efforts to decrease OC contamination of animal feed and the environment have had a positive impact on the contamination of the animal production. OC concentrations declined significantly in almost all studied regions of Sweden.

Exposure to dioxin-like pollutants via different food commodities in Swedish children and young adults.

The dietary intake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and biphenyls (PCBs) in terms of toxic equivalents (TEQs) was investigated in Swedish children and young adults. Exposure was estimated from concentration data of six groups of individual food commodities (meat, fish, dairy products, egg, edible fats and other foodstuff) combined with food intake data from a 7-day record book obtained from 670 individuals aged 1-24 years. The results showed that Swedish boys and girls, up to the age of ten, had a median TEQ intake that exceeded the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 2 pg TEQ/kg body weight.

Increased susceptibility to adult paraoxon exposure in mice neonatally exposed to nicotine.

Low-dose exposure of neonatal mice to nicotine has earlier been shown to induce an altered behavioral response to nicotine in adulthood. Organophosphorus insecticides are known to affect the cholinergic system by inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. This study was undertaken to investigate whether neonatal exposure to nicotine makes mice more susceptible to a known cholinergic agent.

The developing cholinergic system as target for environmental toxicants, nicotine and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): implications for neurotoxicological processes in mice.

During neonatal life, offspring can be affected by toxic agents either by transfer via mother's milk or by direct exposure. In many mammalian species the perinatal period is characterized by a rapid development of the brain - "the brain growth spurt" (BGS). This period in the development of the mammalian brain is associated with numerous biochemical changes that transform the feto-neonatal brain into that of the mature adult.

Neurobehavioural defects in adult mice neonatally exposed to nicotine: changes in nicotine-induced behaviour and maze learning performance.

Neonatal exposure to low doses of nicotine has been shown to disturb the development of low-affinity nicotinic binding sites in the cerebral cortex and to elicit a deviant behavioural response to nicotine in adult mice. In this study, 10-day-old male NMRI mice were exposed to one of three different doses of nicotine (3.3, 33, or 66 microg nicotine-base/kg body wt.

Neonatal nicotine administration influences ethanol-induced behaviors.

Neonatal mice were administered nicotine (66 microg (-)-nicotine base/kg body weight (bw) s.c. twice daily at 0800 and 1700 h on postnatal days 10 and 14) and control mice received saline (10 ml 0.

Exposure to nicotine during a defined period in neonatal life induces permanent changes in brain nicotinic receptors and in behaviour of adult mice.

Neonatal exposure to low doses of nicotine has been shown to prevent the development of low-affinity nicotine-binding sites, and to elicit a different behaviour response to nicotine in the mice as adults. This study has identified a defined period during the development of neonatal mouse brain for the induction of these permanent changes. Neonatal mice, aged either 3, 10, or 19 days were exposed to nicotine, 66 micrograms nicotine-base/kg b.