riiursday, September 21,2000
science
Page 5 A
THE BATTALION
A. ^
Calcium supplements found to be risky
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• most recentexat| CHICAGO (AP) — Many over-
'jP.'the-counter calcium supplements
Hit millions take to keep bones
Kong contain small amounts of lead
Kit c'ould be a health risk if recom-
iaended doses are exceeded, new re-
five percent of Americans take these potentially lead-heavy pills every day
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■ Though manufacturers have re-
dlced the lead content since the de-
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, ^ ago, the authors say they re-exam-
, s iled the issue because doctors are
lumbtan singerVr. . . ,. . .
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um supplements to menopausal
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nslation ot the c AU . c . n. u IIC ,
••-ruw i • v About 5 percent ot the U.S. pop-
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, „ ulation takes the supplements, in-
interest in the - , • ui ^ r
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’ s.iu sun 'j4 ease( j 0 p osteoporosis as their
bodies stop producing estrogen.
About 10 million Americans suffer
.fr°m the bone-thinning disease.
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Calcium is often mined from an
cient seabeds that also may contain
“A backlash
against calcium
supplements —
evoked by a lead
scare — would
unquestionably
do far more harm
... than would
continued inges
tion of current
supplements.”
— Dr. Robert Heaney
Creighton University
lead, which in high doses can dam
age the nerves, blood cells and di
gestive system, causing such prob
lems as irritability, fatigue, vomiting,
convulsions and permanent brain
damage.
However, the authors say their
findings suggest supplements are
generally safe and beneficial unless
taken in larger-than-recommended
doses for many years.
The authors tested 23 products in
March; their results appear in
Wednesday’s Journal of the Ameri
can Medical Association.
The authors found no detectable
level of lead in 15 of the supple
ments. The remainder had from 1.74
micrograms to 3.43 micrograms per
1,500 milligrams of calcium. The
dose generally recommended to
help prevent osteoporosis is about
1,200 milligrams to 1,500 mil
ligrams daily.
Experts have suggested that the
body’s total daily exposure to lead
should not exceed 6 micrograms, said
Dr. Edward Ross, a University of
Florida nephrologist who conducted
the study with toxicology experts at
the school’s Gainesville campus.
An editorial in the same issue, by
a medical consultant for many calci
um suppliers, says the industry has
made great strides in getting lead out
of supplements and criticizes the au
thors for sounding an unnecessary
alarm.
“A backlash against calcium sup
plements — evoked by a lead scare
— would unquestionably do far
more harm ... than would continued
ingestion of current supplements,”
Dr. Robert Heaney of Creighton Uni
versity said in the editorial.
Heaney also is a spokesman for
the National Osteoporosis Founda
tion. an advocacy group that seeks
to reduce the prevalence of osteo
porosis. The foundation promotes
the use of calcium supplements
when food intake of the mineral is
inadequate.
Though the issue prompted a
widely publicized 1997 California
lawsuit that forced one manufactur
er to reduce the lead in its products,
many consumers remain unaware of
the potential exposure.
“I’m just taking this because I’m
old and I was told to for my bones
and osteoporosis,” said Eilene Booth
by, 53, of Nevada City, Calif. “Now
I have to go home and look on the
back of my bottle.”
Makers of the dietary supple
ments are not required to list lead
content, and Ross said some adver
tise their products as being lead-free
even when they contain small
amounts of lead.
Ross said the findings should prod
manufacturers into either further re
ducing lead content or listing the
amount on the label.
A spokeswoman for Leiner
Health Products Group, the manu
facturer involved in the California
case, said she hadn’t seen the study
and would not comment.
More than
strong bones
According to a study published
Wednesday in the Journal of the
American Medical Association,
the small amounts of lead
contained in many calcium
supplements could, in exces
sive doses, pose a health risk.
U.S. retail sales of minerals,
in millions of dollars
1999
Calcium $624
Magnesium $133
Chromium $120
Zinc $109
■i Selenium $76
| Potassium $68
- : Iron $65
111 Others $55
Note: Others include silica, manganese,
boron, choline, iodine, phosphorous
and copper. ■
Source: Nutrition Business Journal
AP
Scenes of Technology
New antibiotic for
pneumonia ready
TORONTO (AP) — A new fami
ly of bacteria killers on the hori
zon for pneumonia and other dis
eases should offer an alternative
to standard antibiotics that have
lost their punch because germs
are growing resistant.
Medicines called macrolides
are a standard treatment for
many bacterial infections that
cause respiratory diseases. They
include such antibiotic warhorses
as erythromycin. However, bugs
like strep and staph are growing
resistant to them, as well as to
the primary backup medicines,
known as quinolones.
The drug industry’s latest sal
vo are the ketolides. They are de
rived from the macrolides, but
they are chemically different, so
they will kill bacteria that are re
sistant to macrolides.
Honey bees may hold key to curb alcoholism
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Honey bees and
humans have at least one thing in common: They
both drink alcohol, and researchers want to know
whether the insects can be used to test drugs de
signed to curb alcoholism.
Some animals have to be injected or tricked
into consuming alcohol, but not bees. In studies,
honey bees harnessed on a small metal holder
consumed solutions with various levels of
ethanol.
“We can even get them to drink pure ethanol,
and 1 know of no organism that drinks pure
ethanol, not even a college student,” said Charles
Abramson, a comparative psychologist at Okla
homa State University.
Research could determine within a few months
whether bees are suitable subjects that would al
low drug companies to use fewer vertebrates in the
first line of drug testing, Abramson said.
Abramson, assistant Gina Fellows from the
University of Hertfordshire in England and other
students have begun giving bees the drug
Antabuse, which makes alcoholics sick when they
drink in order to curb consumption.
The drug is administered gradually to bees, al
lowing them to stop.
“It looks like it does have an [effect] on the
bees,” Abramson said.
Tests have been limited to the lab, but the teaifr
has begun conducting experiments in a more nat
ural setting, with bees living in a hive atop a uni
versity building. The bees are trained to come
down to a third-floor window to drink and are
marked for observation before buzzing away. •
Bees and people are more alike than meets the
eye. ]
■
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Acct 229
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