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Shed deciduous teeth lead and cadmium content of children from Cartagena (Spain) was assessed. Parents were provided with an interview containing different questions concerning family socioeconomic status, child's health history, zone of residence, or home antiquity. Besides, physiological variables were considered, i.e., sex of donor, presence of caries, type of tooth donated, tooth weight, age of shedding, and position within the mouth. Tooth lead and cadmium data showed a positively skewed distribution and were log-normalized for further analyses. No statistically significant differences could be observed for lead and cadmium values according to the sex of donor. Both heavy metals decreased in content from incisors to molars and with age of shedding. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) displayed both environmental and physiological risk factors contributing to high tooth lead and cadmium values. When a multifactor ANOVA was carried out, the associations between home antiquity, nail biting habit, and jaw with tooth lead levels, as well as those between zone of residence and tooth cadmium levels were found to persist. However, the only common factor for both heavy metals in the multiple analyses was the type of tooth.

This article presents the results of the analysis of the metals lead, cadmium, copper, zinc and aluminum, conducted on a total of 112 soil samples arising from 57 sampling points, distributedthroughout the Cartagena area in southeastern Spain. Both, totalmetal content and soluble fraction (1 M nitric acid medium, exchangeable fraction) were analyzed. Soil samples were taken on the surface of the terrain and at a depth of 35 cm from eachsampling point. For the purposes of this study, sampling points were classified in three groups based on the results of previous research on air pollution in the region: clean areas,contaminated areas and vacant industrial areas. The statisticalanalyses of the results show no significant differences betweenthe surface samples and the 35 cm deep samples from all three areas. Lead, zinc and copper (soluble and total fractions) aresignificantly higher, and pH significantly lower, in the samples coming from the contaminated and vacant industrial areasthan in samples coming from the clean area. Total lead and cadmium are significantly higher in the vacant industrial areas(150 g kg-1 Pb and 9.3 g kg-1 Cd) than in the contaminated areas (5.2 g kg-1 Pb and 2.1 g kg-1 Cd).Iso-concentration maps have been prepared in order to correlatethe presence of metals with the industrial and mining activities in the region under study. These maps show a clear relationship between human activities and metal concentrationgradients, with peaks corresponding to both active and abandoned industrial and mining facilities.

Inhaled medication through dry powder inhalers is widely used in children, but pediatric studies focussing on the ages at which these devices can be used are sparse.To establish the difference in peak inspiratory flow (PIF) through Accuhaler and Turbuhaler in healthy children using a new device, In-check, and to determine the differences between the two different models of this device.PIF was measured in 64 healthy male children (mean age 11.2 years, range 8.8-14.7) by means of In-check and In-check Dial using Accuhaler and Turbuhaler resistances. The best attempt of three was chosen. Height,weight, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second were also measured.Significant differences in PIF were found between the two inhalers: PIF In-check Accuhaler-PIF In-check Turbuhaler (134.4 +/- 15.5 L/min vs 99.9 6 +/- 11.1 L/min; p0,000) and PIF In-check Dial Accuhaler-PIF In-check Dial Turbuhaler (109.6+/-10.5 L/min vs 86.8+/-8.9 L/min; p0.000). The best correlation obtained among the different In-check measurements was between In-check Ac-cuhaler and In-check Turbuhaler (r=0.88; p0.001), and the worst was between In-check Dial Accuhaler and In-check Turbuhaler (r =0.71; p0.001).PIF through Accuhaler is significantly higher than that through Turbuhaler, although in both cases PIF was sufficient to provide adequate distribution of the inhaled medication in children aged 9-14 years. Consequently, in children younger than 9 years old, and especially during an asthma attack, In-check should be tried in order to discover whether the child is capable of using Turbuhaler correctly.

The problems of air pollution became noticeable in Cartagena in the seventies, high SO2 and particle levels having been reached from time to time. Our aim is to assess, using the EMECAM methodology, the acute impact of SO2 and particle air pollution on the daily death rate of the city of Cartagena in the 1992-1996 period.A daily listing is provided of the total number of non-accidental deaths within the population as a whole and for those over age 70, the cardiovascular and the respiratory deaths due to dioxide and particle air pollution for the 1992-1996 period using autoregressive Poisson models which control seasonality, weather, time of year, flu, special events, and time lags.In the period under study, there has been a drop in the SO2 air pollution as compared to previous years, which was not as marked for the particles. The analyses reveal significant relationships in the total non-accidental deaths in those over age 69, with the average particle count and those particles with cardiovascular deaths for the months of May to October. In the six-month period of the year, when the weather is cold, we found a positive statistically significant relationship to exist in the maximum daily hourly value of the particles and the deaths due to cardiocirculatory and respiratory diseases. However, there is no consistency in the between on assessing the reliability of the models.