BACKGROUND Inhalation of asbestos and other mineral fibers is known causes of malignant mesothelioma (MM) and lung cancers. In a setting of occupational exposure to asbestos, MM occurs four to eight times more frequently in men than in women, at the median age of 74 years, whereas an environmental exposure to asbestos causes the same number of MMs in men and women, at younger ages. METHODS We...

Seven varieties of Tajik legumes and two Tajik snack type ready-to-eat (RTE) whole/split chickpeas were analyzed for iron in raw and cooked legumes and for naturally occurring folate content in cooked legumes. Iron was measured according to AACC method 40 41B. Folate contents were determined by microbiological (Lactobacillus casei subsp. Rhamnosus ATCC 7469) and high-performance liquid chromato...

BACKGROUND The findings of animal and human studies suggest that a certain component in milk enhances food folate bioavailability. OBJECTIVE The objective was to evaluate whether cow milk enhances the bioavailability of food folate in humans. DESIGN Thirty-one young women were fed low-folate diets on a 4-d rotation with (n=17) or without (n=14) cow milk for 8 wk. Plasma and erythrocyte fola...

A flexible semi-parametric regression model is proposed for modeling the relationship between a response and multivariate predictor variables. The proposed multiple-index model with unknown link and variance functions is an extension of the single index model of Chiou & Müller (1998). The unknown functions are assumed to be smooth and are estimated nonparametrically. We propose data-adaptive me...

BACKGROUND There is a critical need to estimate dietary folate intakes for nutrition monitoring and food safety evaluations, but available intake data are seriously limited by several factors. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to update 2 national food consumption surveys to reflect folate intakes as a result of the recently initiated food fortification program and to correct folate intakes for the...

The neural tube defects anencephaly and spina bifida are two of the most common serious congenital malformations. Most cases can be prevented by consuming sufficient folic acid immediately before pregnancy and in early pregnancy. Fortification of flour with folic acid to prevent these defects has been implemented in 81 countries without public objection or indication of harm. An obstacle to the...

A 298 W hen Iceland became the first country to ban most forms of asbestos in 1983, 1 global use hovered around 4.3–4.7 million metric tons per year. 2 Twenty-five years later, with several dozen countries now implementing some form of ban, 1 that number had dropped to 2.1 million metric tons. 3 Today, while demand has plummeted in most developed countries, it continues to rise in those countri...

Virtually all available data on persistence of naturally occurring mineral fibers in human lungs have been derived from studies of asbestos fiber loads. These studies indicate that, although both amphibole and chrysotile asbestos fibers are found in the lungs of the general population and exposed workers, amphibole fibers are universally present in disproportionately large and chrysotile fibers...