Exposure to Cadmium and Lead in an Agropastoral Iron Age Population

Metals present in the environment (soil, water and atmosphere) can affect food safety and human health through bio‐accumulation and bio‐magnification phenomena. Human exposure to the metals may take place through the environment and by ingesting contaminated food (including water), determining harmful effects usually detectable over the long term. Starting with the Industrial Revolution, local occurrence and concentration of metallic contaminants in the environment have been exponentially increasing: it has been assessed that, nowadays, daily absorption of lead, by North American people, is noticeably greater than that during prehistoric times. In this study, we measured concentrations of cadmium, lead and zinc in 153 bone samples (femurs) of Iron Age inhabitants of Central Italy (Abruzzo): the Samnites from the Alfedena Necropolis (2600–2400 bp ). The data found are in agreement with the results of similar published studies. Heavy metal concentrations varied widely among samples with the exception of zinc. A significant difference (p same Mann–Whitney test <0.05) in cadmium bone levels was found between male (0.08–1.8 mg/kg, median 0.31 mg/kg) and female samples (0.05–1.3 mg/kg, median 0.53 mg/kg). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Importance of Household Size and Composition in Constructing Poverty Profiles: An Illustration from Vietnam

The calculation of income–poverty profiles should allow for household size and composition, but rarely does so. Failure to do this means that the poverty profile will be distorted. The appropriate adjustments are straightforward, requiring simple assumptions which, whilst arbitrary, are better than ignoring the problem. Not making these adjustments distorts not only the relationship between household size and poverty, but all aspects of the poverty profile correlated to household size. For the case of Vietnam, this article shows that, if the adjustments are not made, rural poverty is under–stated as is poverty amongst those with little education, minority ethnic groups and female–headed households. Far fewer children live in poverty than is suggested when the appropriate data adjustments are not made.