Coastal Marine Environment Sustainability - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 275

to be essential elements, and the lack of any of these can be harmful to human health.
However, ingestion of concentrations of these essential elements in access of acceptable
daily intake (ADI) can be harmful to human health. Table 8.3 shows some of the effects
to human health for some of the essential elements when ingested concentrations are
deicient ( lack of ) or in excess ( toxic ). All the harmful effects shown in the last two col-
umns are not meant to be totally deinitive. They should be considered as potential effects
since very few totally controlled studies have been conducted to fully isolate the noted
harmful effects .
The record shows that background concentration of many of these elements and sev-
eral other known toxicants exist in the environment and especially in the coastal marine
environment and sediments—naturally derived and more likely due to anthropogenic

TABLE 8.3
Average Daily Intake of Some Inorganics in Typical North American Adults Compared with
Typical Dosages in a Common Dietary Supplement
Daily Intake
(mg/day) a

Typical Average
Value for Adult

Typical Dosage
in Dietary Pills

Possible Effects from
Deiciency b Element Possible Toxic Effects b

Potassium 3750 32 Hypokalemia, muscle

weakness, abnormal
heart rhythms

Diarrhea, nephrotoxicity,
hyperkalemia, muscle
fatigue, cardia
arrhythmia

Calcium 420 530 Loss of calcium from

bone, muscle spasms,
leg cramps

Calcium deposition in
soft tissue, kidney
stones

Sodium 5660 Muscle cramps High blood pressure

Phosphorous 1500 400 Weakness, rickets, bone

pain

Kidney/liver damage

Magnesium 375 100 Electrolyte imbalance of

Ca and K

Muscle weakness

Zinc 13 22.5 Reduced appetite and

growth

Irritability, nausea

Iron 19.5 12 Anemia Gastrointestinal irritation

Chromium 0.115 0.027 Atherosclerosis Tubular necrosis of the

kidney

Fluoride 3 Possible osteoporosis Dental luorosis, possible

osteoscierosis

Copper Disorder of copper

metabolism, hepatic
cirrhosis
Source: Adapted from Yong, R.N., Waste disposal, regulatory policy and potential health threats. In S.P. Bentley
(ed.), Engineering Geology of Waste Disposal , Geological Society of London Special Publication No. 11,
pp. 325-340, 1996.
a Information from Lappenbusch, W.L., Contaminated Waste Sites, Property and Your Health , Lappenbusch
Environmental Health, Virginia, 360 pp., 1988.
b Deiciency and toxicity effects are probable effects and are very much dependent on initial health, diet, local
environment, cultural attitudes, body features, physiology, etc.

1.7 2 Anemia, loss of pigment,

reduced growth, loss of
arterial elasticity