This research work has been supervised by Professor Fernando Gil Hernández and has proved that the presence of arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) in the population of the area where the accident of Aznalcóllar occurred is similar to that of other Andalusian towns, and the levels clearly meet the parameters permitted by health authorities.
This doctoral thesis fits with a series of scientific studies promoted by the Department of Environment and Health of the Andalusian Council to monitor the sanitary quality of the Green Corridor of the river Guadiamar, under the supervision of Enrique Villanueva Cañadas, director of the Department of Legal Medicine and Toxicology of the UGR.
The departments of Analytical Chemistry of the Universities of Granada and Almería, and that of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of Málaga. We can gather the first results from Esperanza de Santiago Rodriguez’s thesis. The average values in the affected area by the dumping are 1.68 micrograms of As per every gram of creatinine in urine; and 0.17 micrograms of Cd per every blood litre.
The averages of the rest of the Andalusian towns are 1.39 micrograms/gram, in the case of As, and 0.13 micrograms/litre for Cd. Differences are minimal and insignificant for scentists. In any case, the normal parameters established by health authorities are 50 micrograms/gram in the case of As, and 5 micrograms/litre for Cd.
Wide Population Sample
The samples were obtained, on the one hand, from 501 persons of health centres of the affected area (Aznalcóllar, Aznalcázar, Sanlúcar la Mayor, among other towns of Seville); and, on the other hand, from 703 persons of the rest of the Andalusian provinces, in a representative way. The scientific works of these characteristics carried out previously have not used so big population samples as this of the University of Granada.
In the analysis of the results they have taken into account the alimentary habits that affect the presence of these heavy metals. The levels of As increase if the diet are includes hake, fresh anchovy, sardine and mussel; and Cd levels increase Cd with mixed salad, kingklip, sardines, shrimps, prawns and crab, besides drinking alcohol and, above all, tobacco.
Reference: Prof Fernando Gil Hernández. Dpt. of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Psychiatry.
Phone numbers: 958 243 546- 958 249 930.
E-mail. fgil@ugr.es
