The biological half-time of heavy metals. The existence of a third slowest component.

Author: Sugita M.

Source: Int Arch Occup Health.

Year: 1978

Comment:

This study explores the biological half time (BHT) of heavy metals in the human body, and finds that in the entire brain, mercury has a half life of 22 years.

Abstract / Excerpt:

“Concentrations of Cd (475 samples), Pb (271), and total Hg (166) were determined in the organs and tissues during autopsies of inhabitants of the Tokyo metropolitan area who had experienced no known exposure to an abnormally high level of heavy metals and had died sudden deaths by accident. The results of this study do not differ greatly from those of other reports. Based on the intraorganic accumulation of the heavy metals according to age when they were not experimentally administered, the biological half-time (BHT) was estimated using a mathematical model with differential equations. It was hypothesized that the input of heavy metals into organs is proportional to the amount of food intake according to age (assuming little or no chronological change of heavy metals concentrations in food over several decades), and that the output is proportional to the intraorganic accumulation. The resulting BHT was very long, 10 to 100 times that computed in a number of studies from observation of the attenuation curve for a relatively short period after the experimental administration of heavy metals to humans or animals.”

Citation:

Sugita M. The biological half-time of heavy metals. The existence of a third slowest component. Int Arch Occup Health. 1978; 41(1):25-40.