These substances have been used as cleaning and degreasing agents in most departments, with the highest exposures occurring in maintenance, repair, and cleaning operations, and medium exposures in sulfate pulp and pulp bleaching departments.
Children residing in areas with a soil contamination level of 165 265 kBq/m (medium exposure group in 1993 1998 cohort and the highest in 2008 2010) and consuming cow milk with higher Cs levels (>85 Bq/L) had higher levels of serum IgA as compared to the lowest exposure levels even 25 years after the incident.
The exposure-response pattern for anencephalus was inconsistent with an elevated effect estimate in low but not in medium exposure category.
IgM was also found to be higher in the medium exposure groups (dynamic cohort) and lower in children with the higher residential exposure (longitudinal cohort).
The mean time of showering was 69.73 minutes per week in the low-exposure group, 92.21 minutes per week in the medium exposure group, and 114.33 minutes per week in the high exposure group.
It was reported that smoke-concentrated medium exposure induced Cdc42 translocation in human bronchial epithelial cells that may contribute to lung carcinogenesis [58].
The impact of area of residence was assessed for the Inuits (three categories: Living in the capital Nuuk [presumed low exposure], living on the remaining west coast [presumed medium exposure] and living in the north or east coast regions [presumed high exposure]) and the Swedish study population (two categories: west [presumed low exposure] and east [presumed high exposure] coasts).
We hypothesize that higher serum levels of IgA in medium exposure groups as compared to low exposure may reflect an increased response of the immune system to Cs ingested with locally produced food, which is now considered the main way how Cs enters human body [ 36, 37].
The highest prevalence of cough and sputum production was noted in the groups that had the highest prevalence of smokers, 62% in the lowest exposure group and 70% in the medium exposure group.
However, exposure to higher ethanol concentrations resulted in a tissue concentration that was markedly lower than that in the culture medium: exposure to 350 and 437.5 mM ethanol resulted in average tissue concentrations of 169 and 179 mM, respectively (Fig. 3A), which were almost half the environmental concentration.
