Assessing elemental mercury vapor exposure from cultural and religious practices.

Use of elemental mercury in certain cultural and religious practices can cause high exposures to mercury vapor. Uses include sprinkling mercury on the floor of a home or car, burning it in a candle, and mixing it with perfume. Some uses can produce indoor air mercury concentrations one or two orders of magnitude above occupational exposure limits. Exposures resulting from other uses, such as infrequent use of a small bead of mercury, could be well below currently recognized risk levels. Metallic mercury is available at almost all of the 15 botanicas visited in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but botanica personnel often deny having mercury for sale when approached by outsiders to these religious and cultural traditions. Actions by public health authorities have driven the mercury trade underground in some locations. Interviews indicate that mercury users are aware that mercury is hazardous, but are not aware of the inhalation exposure risk. We argue against a crackdown by health authorities because it could drive the practices further underground, because high-risk practices may be rare, and because uninformed government intervention could have unfortunate political and civic side effects for some Caribbean and Latin American immigrant groups. We recommend an outreach and education program involving religious and community leaders, botanica personnel, and other mercury users.

Effects of dietary vitamin E supplementation during late pregnancy on lamb mortality and ewe productivity.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of feeding vitamin E to ewes during late pregnancy on lamb mortality and ewe productivity. DESIGN: Prospective study. ANIMALS: 1,302 mature Rambouillet and Targhee ewes. PROCEDURE: During a 3-year period, approximately 430 ewes/y were randomly allocated to 2 groups; supplement-group ewes were fed additional vitamin E and control-group ewes were not. Beginning approximately 3 weeks before the first expected lambing date, ewes were fed 2.3 kg (5 lb) of alfalfa-grass hay/d and 0.23 kg (0.5 lb) of barley-based pellets/d with or without supplemental vitamin E. Pellets that were supplemented contained 1,450 mg of DL-alpha-tocopherol acetate/kg (658 mg/lb) of feed and provided an additional 330 IU of vitamin E/ewe/d. Selenium was incorporated into a trace mineral salt and fed free choice to all ewes throughout pregnancy. RESULTS: Supplemental vitamin E had no effect on ewe weight, body condition score, fertility, or prolificacy. In ewes that lambed in the early part of the lambing season, vitamin E supplementation significantly reduced lamb mortality, compared with no supplementation (12 vs 17%, respectively). Consequently, supplement-group ewes had significantly greater total body weight of lambs per ewe at the time of weaning, compared with control-group ewes. Differences were not observed between ewe groups in lamb mortality or total body weight of lambs per ewe at the time of weaning when ewes lambed during the late part of the lambing season. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: If ewes are fed additional vitamin E3 weeks before parturition, those that lamb in the early part of the lambing season may have low lamb mortality and, thus, higher total body weight of lambs per ewe at the time of weaning.

Influence of body condition and lasalocid during late gestation on blood metabolites, lamb birth weight and colostrum composition and production in Finn-cross ewes.

The objective of this experiment was to examine the effects of body condition (BC) and of lasalocid (L) the last 4 wk of gestation on blood metabolite profiles, lamb birth weight and colostrum composition and production. Twenty-eight 3-yr-old Finn-Targhee ewes (73 kg) were assigned randomly within BC grouping (2.5 or 3.5) and individually fed a diet of 90% alfalfa pellets and 10% of a supplement containing either no L (C = control) or L. Gestation and 24-h postlambing weights were higher (P less than .05) for 3.5 BC versus 2.5 BC ewes. Lasalocid had no effect (P greater than .05) on ewe weight. Average number of lambs born within treatment groups were similar (P greater than .05). Total kilograms of lamb born were greater (P less than .10) for 3.5 BC ewes. Body condition 3.5 ewes had greater concentrations of total protein (P less than .10) and albumin (P less than .05) the last 4 wk of gestation than those in the 2.5 BC group. Feeding L decreased (P less than .05) blood urea-N in comparison with C ewes. Colostrum composition and production were not influenced (P greater than .05) by BC, L or number of lambs born. Serum 3-hydroxybutyrate seemed to be a good indicator of energy metabolism; albumin and blood urea-N concentrations reflected dietary protein intake. Lasalocid had a minimal effect on nutrient metabolism and productivity of ewes fed in excess of the NRC (1985) protein and energy requirements.