A review of recent activity in the United States

Our plain-English summary of A review of recent activity in the United States, by H.L. Cannon, W.L. Petrie (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 1979).

The study

• Authors: H.L. Cannon, W.L. Petrie
• Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
• Published: 1979;288(1026):137-49
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Either an overabundance or a deficiency of trace metals in the food chain can ultimately affect adversely the health of livestock and man. Increasing interest in the United States in the distribution of metals in the environment and in metal pollutants has led to widespread interdisciplinary research sponsored by governmental, private and academic groups concerning the availability of trace elements for absorption by plants and animals, and the effects of trace elements throughout the food chain. The state of the art and the needs for research are reviewed by interdisciplinary committees in the National Academy of Sciences and in many government agencies. Research is encouraged through contracts and grants awarded by federal and state agencies and the National Science Foundation to universities for studies of specific metals, specific diseases and correlations between metals and health in specific geographic areas. Effects on the environment of coal-fired power plants, the mining and processing of metals, asbestos, and phosphate, and the disposal of industrial and nuclear wastes have also received much attention in the past few years.

In plain English

This article was a review, not an original study. The authors, from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, gave an overview of United States research from roughly the previous 10 years on trace metals in the environment and health. It covered soils, plants, water, disease patterns, pollution from mining, smelters and power plants, and the nutritional and toxic effects of trace elements. It also described the committees, agencies, universities and conferences involved. Asbestos appeared only briefly. The authors noted that asbestos mining and processing had recently caused concern as a direct effect of mining on human health. They said the hazard had been studied by groups including staff at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a Department of Health, Education and Welfare service. A National Academy of Sciences committee had also prepared a report on asbestos. The review gave no asbestos findings, fiber types or disease figures. The authors concluded that excess ions in drinking water and metal pollution in air and water appeared to affect health more than natural metal variation in unpolluted soils and vegetation.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Review (overview of recent research activity in the United States)
• Who was studied: Research by U.S. federal agencies and universities over about the past 10 years (to 1979) on environmental geochemistry and health
• Exposure: Mainly trace metals and other elements in soils, plants, water and air. Asbestos mining and processing is mentioned briefly, with no fiber types or doses given.
• Main results:
  • The review noted that the asbestos hazard had been studied by several research groups, including staff at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Services of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It reported no findings from that work.
  • A National Academy of Sciences committee on the effects of environmental pollutants had prepared reports on a list of inorganic substances that included asbestos.
  • Among the research it reviewed, the article reported that trace element concentrations around power plants were much lower than around smelters, and that smelters emitting cadmium (Cd) were particularly hazardous to health.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that recent studies had not greatly changed earlier conclusions. Excesses of certain ions in drinking water, and added metal pollution in air and water, appeared to have greater effects on health and disease than natural variations in the metal content of unpolluted soils and vegetation in the United States.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that their coverage was incomplete and represented only a sampling of the research reported in the past 10 years.
  • The authors stated that reviewing the achievements of individual researchers and citing all their work was not possible in this paper.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: State-of-the-Art Defense.

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