The authors studied blood lead levels of 226 randomly selected children, aged 6-92 mo, who lived in either a lead-mining area or a nonmining area, and 69 controls. The authors sought to determine to what extent mining activities contributed to blood lead levels in the children. The mean blood lead levels in the study and control groups were 6.52 microg/dl and 3.43 microg/dl, respectively. The corresponding proportions of children with elevated blood lead levels were 17% and 3%. Soil and dust lead levels were up to 10 times higher in the study than the control group. Elevated blood lead levels appeared to result from exposure to both lead-mining waste and lead-based paint. Mining waste was the cause of the higher prevalence of elevated blood lead levels in these children.

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Gamma irradiation has been shown to effectively control L monocytogenes in uncooked meats but has not been extensively studied in ready-to-eat foods. The presence of Listeria in ready-to-eat foods is often due to postprocess contamination by organisms in the food-manufacturing environment. Because gamma irradiation is applied after products are packaged, the treated foods are protected from environmental recontamination. Currently, a petition to allow gamma irradiation of ready-to-eat foods is under review by the Food and Drug Administration. This study was conducted to determine if gamma irradiation could be used to control L. monocytogenes in ready-to-eat sandwiches. Ham and cheese sandwiches were contaminated with L. monocytogenes, frozen at -40 degrees C, and exposed to gamma irradiation. Following irradiation, sandwiches were assayed for L. monocytogenes. A triangle test was performed to determine if irradiated and nonirradiated sandwiches differed in sensory quality. We found that the D10-values ranged from 0.71 to 0.81 kGy and that a 5-log reduction would require irradiation with 3.5 to 4.0 kGy. The results of a 39-day storage study of sandwiches inoculated with 10(7) CFU of L monocytogenes per g indicated that counts for nonirradiated sandwiches remained fairly constant. Counts for sandwiches treated with 3.9 kGy decreased by 5 log units initially and then decreased further during storage at 4 degrees C. Sensory panelists could distinguish between irradiated and nonirradiated sandwiches but were divided on whether irradiation adversely affected sandwich quality. Our results suggest that manufacturers of ready-to-eat foods could use gamma irradiation to control L. monocytogenes and improve the safety of their products.

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