Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
integration of environmental monitoring data concerning exposure to and effects
brought about by contaminants was achieved in Germany. This metadata system
contains some 800 items producing, some picture of environmental quality and hu-
man health beyond a detailed consideration of “classical” topics of environmental
monitoring (water, air, soils, plants, animals, landscapes (Schroeder W et al.
2003
)).
Analysis of biogenic samples in either biomonitoring or bioindication will pro-
duce data; these, however, must not be taken as pieces of information on the “state
of the environment” directly, except for measurements of atmospheric deposition
(by means of mosses, Tillandsiae, etc). Even then, no organism might enrich all
the elements from the environment by some identical bioconcentration factor BCF,
but there will always be selectivity with drawbacks in biomonitoring (Fraenzle and
Markert
2007
)
4
Physiological and Dynamic Features of Chemical
Elements in the Food/Milk System
Mother's milk has a peculiar significance for being the best-quality and physiologi-
cally best-suited source of food for nutrition of small children. For that reason, there
is a history of several decades of extensive research on quantification of hazardous
substances in mother's milk. As important as these works were, they could not at-
tribute detected burdens to any path of uptake, nor could they attribute them to that
via maternal food. Acknowledging the human organs system to be highly complex
in all biological, physiological and biochemical aspects, the development of such
methods is required which allow for pinpointing the origins and behaviour of invad-
ing materials, giving clues to certain environmental influences on mother's milk
quality and composition.
Living beings are exposed to chemicals in the environment throughout. Ele-
ments may be resorbed on each dermal, inhalative or oral pathways depending on
their physicochemical properties, getting into cells of whatever kind/differentiation,
causing, given corresponding properties, an active exposition of the target organ to
an element just resorbed. Limited by their active or passive elimination in different
ways (urine, feces, other body liquids, etc.) they are often capable of accumulating
in organ systems and tissues, sometimes augmented by a high affinity towards the
corresponding target organ or tissue. Taking histological and biochemical effects
into consideration (Fraenzle
2009
) derived typical accumulation and resorption
properties by correlating the electrochemical ligand parameter and the correspond-
ing complex dissociation constants. Like this approach covers ligand properties of
biological matter throughout a species (Boese-O'Reilly et al.
1999
; Muckle et al.
2001
; Fraenzle et al.
2004
; Czub
2004
) also transfer/relocation processes within
some organisms will be understood better when considering rules of coordination
chemistry.
