156 Abstracts

selenium, although selenium has little therapeutic significance once the diseases are established.

Recently, in collaboration with J. Vanderpas and J. Dumont, we have discovered another region of acutely low selenium status in a population in N. W. Zaire. Here there is also acutely low iodine status, and we are finding that correction of both the selenium and iodine intakes may be of key importance in explaining some of the puzzling anomalies concerning the very high incidence of goiter and cretinism in these populations.

Low antioxidant nutrient status has also been thought to be asso- ciated with a high incidence of cancer in certain sites in the body. The evidence for this will be discussed in the light of current epidemiological knowledge.

Selenium in Foods and Diets of Selected European Countries

JORMA T. KUMPULAINEN AND RAUA TAHVONEN

Central Laboratory and Institute of Food Chemistry, Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, SF-31600 Jokioinen, Finland

As part of the research program of the FAO European Research Network on Trace Elements, selenium (Se) contents of representative staple food and diets samples from 10 European countries during 1984- 1988 have been studied (1). The Se content of wheat grain, wheat flour, and potatoes from Sweden, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Switzerland, Scotland, and Norway was very low (e.g., 9-34 b~g/kg), with the exception of Swiss wheat flour, which was very high in Se (213 bLg/kg) owing to mixing of 30% of imported high-Se wheat from North America before milling. Turkish wheat samples were somewhat higher in Se (72 ~g/kg) than those of most of the above European countries; however, the average Se intake of an urban upper-middle-class popula- tion was still very low (approx 25 ~g/kg). The level of Se content in milk from Sweden, FRG, Scotland, and France ranged from 111-122 ~g/kg dry wt. The average Se intake in Sweden was very low (38 bLg/d), clearly higher in the Netherlands (67 ~g/d) and in Switzerland (70 bLg/d), and relatively high in Finland (113 ~g/d) (1). The average Se content of Finnish staple foods has increased from 3-10-fold owing to general Se addition to multimineral fertilizers beginning in 1985. Also, the average Se intake in Finland has increased from approx 30 p~g/d in 1976 (2) to 113

Biological Trace Element Research Vol. 33, 1992

Absr 157

~g/d in 1986 (1). Similarly, the average Se intake of exclusively breast-fed Finnish infants has increased from 4.6 IJ, g/d in 1976 (2) to 12 l~g/d in 1987 because of the improved Se status of their mothers.

REFERENCES

1. J. Kumpulainen and R. Tahvonen, Report of the 1989 Consultation of the European Cooperative Research Network on Trace Elements, Lausanne, Switzer- land 5-8.9.1989. FAO, Rome (1989).

2. J. Kumpulainen, Acta Paediatr. Scand. Suppl. 351, 114-117 (1989).

Selenium in the Surficial Environment of the Yugoslav Karst

SIMON PIRC, ESAD PROHI~, AND RANKO SVRKOTA

Institute of Geology, FNT, University of Ljubljana, A~ker~eva 20, 61000 Ljubljana

About one-third of Yugoslavia consists of predominantly Mesozoic carbonate rocks, the classic karst region, where the phenomenon got its name. Carbonate rocks are mostly very pure. The median in nine sam- ples of limestone and dolomite from Slovenia amounted to 7 ppb (5--74) total Se, which is very low with respect to the Clarke value of 88 ppb for limestones. In weathering processes, consisting mainly of dissolution of carbonate and concentration of insoluble residue, selenium becomes enriched for almost two orders of magnitude, as evidenced by the me- dian value of 488 (156-1032) ppb Se in six samples of fine fraction of sediment in karst springs from Croatia, Montenegro, and Slovenia. The median value of 16 samples of soils (rendzinas, brown soils on limestone and dolomite, and terra rossa) from Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia amounted to 502 (257-1250) ppb total Se. The Clarke value for soils is assumed to be 310 ppb Se. In spite of the very low contents of the element in underlying carbonate rocks, selenium in soils appears to be consequently highly enriched. Additional data, which need confirma- tion, indicate abundances of total Se in soils on carbonate terrains of several thousand ppb.

Biological Trace Element Research Vol. 33, 1992