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The aim of this study was to monitor exposure to heavy metal contaminants from habitual diets and to estimate the health risk for the consumer by comparing the analyzed content with the acceptable daily intake (ADI). This study is based on the household consumption as assessed by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and our department. The number of food groups (237) consumed by the population (national and the 17 Autonomy Communities) is considered. A list of the metal content of foods is included. The data were collected from reports issued by the Ministry of Health, other official organizations, and from specialized literature. The results show that the intakes of arsenic (0.019 mg/person/d), mercury (0.004 mg/person/d), and lead (0.082 mg/person/d) do not reach the ADI, but that of cadmium exceeds the ADI in some geographical areas. The intake of zinc and chromium does not exceed the dietetic recommendations.

We studied 157 pregnant women living in Merida, Spain, during their third trimester of pregnancy and their newborns at birth, analyzing the mother's and the umbilical cord's blood for hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), serum iron and serum ferritin. We observed statistically significant correlations between hemoglobin and hematocrit values of the mother with erythrocyte count, hemoglobin and hematocrit values of her child and between serum iron of mother and child. The blood levels in the umbilical cord did not decrease until the ferritin value of the mother was < 12 μg/1. Under these conditions the ferritin levels in the umbilical cord blood (80.4 μg/1) were significantly lower than in those newborn infants whose mother had adequate ferritin levels (123 μg/1). We deduce that maternal iron status seems to condition, at least partially, fetal iron status, specially when the mother has some deficiencies. We did not find a lower birth weight in children of anemic mothers. Actually, we found an inverse correlation between maternal hemoglobin values and infant birth weight (r =-0.1731, p < 0.05). It is possible that the demands on the mother are increased in the case of a newborn infant of greater size.