Acute Renal Failure from Inhalation of Mycotoxins

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Vol. 64, No. 4, 1993

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Free Abstract Article (PDF 2398 KB)

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54

Case Report

Acute Renal Failure from Inhalation of Mycotoxins

N. Di Paoloa, A. Guarnieria, F. Loib, G. Sacchic, A.M. Mangiarottid,

M. Di Paoloa

aNephrology and Dialysis Department, and

bEnvironmental Health Department, Regional Hospital of Siena;

cInstitute of Anatomy, University of Siena;

dInstitute of Medical Mycology, University of Parma, Italy

Address of Corresponding Author

Nephron 1993;64:621-625 (DOI: 10.1159/000187411)

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Key Words

Acute renal failure

Mycotoxin

Ochratoxin

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Abstract

Mysterious deaths of archeologists after opening Egyptian tombs have

been suspected to be secondary to inhalation of mycotoxin, however,

the hypothesis has never been verified. Recently, we observed a case

of acute renal failure (ARF) undeniably due to inhalation of

ochratoxin of Aspergillus ochraceus. After spending 8 h in a granary

which had been closed for several months, a farmer and his wife

suffered temporary respiratory distress; 24 h later, the woman

developed nonoliguric ARF and biopsy revealed tubulonecrosis which

healed in 24 days. Toxic substances were not found, but a strain of

A. ochraceus producing ochratoxin was isolated from the wheat.

Copyright © 1993 S. Karger AG, Basel

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Author Contacts

Prof. Nicola Di Paolo, Nephrology and Dialysis Department, Regional

Hospital of Siena, Piazza Duomo, 2, I-53100 Siena (Italy)

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Article Information

Accepted: October 23, 1992

Published online: December 12, 2008

Number of Print Pages : 5

[Guest guest]

Here's another interesting article on toxins and drinking water. My

question awhile back was does the treatment of the water with

chlorine dioxide get rid of the toxins? I think this article makes it

clear that it does not. Therefore my conclusion is we need another

method to filter out toxins from our bodies and from our water.

Sharon H.

Algal toxin, potable water - USA (Florida)

ORLANDO: Algae have left cancer-causing toxins in drinking water

[that supplies] nearly 185 000 people in West Palm Beach and 3 south

west Florida counties. Biologists do not know how to get the poisons

out. Tests on treated water from a plant on the Peace River serving

people in Charlotte, Sarasota, and DeSoto counties showed it to have

5 times the World Health Organization's (WHO) safe level for

microcystin. Water supplying 80 000 residents in West Palm Beach had

nearly twice [WHO's] safe level of microcystin. The tumor-promoting

toxin damages chromosomes and causes abnormally small brains in

laboratory tests on mice. It killed 50 dialysis patients in Brazil in

1996 when they were unknowingly injected with contaminated water.

[Other] algae-produced toxins [have been found] in Florida drinking

water. It was found that treated water from 3 plants on Lake

Okeechobee providing water for 34 000 residents on its shores had

higher levels of cylindrospermopsin than in the lake itself.

Scientists presumed [that] treating the water killed the slime and

its poisons, but now they know that filters and chemicals vanquish

the algae but not always the toxins.

Are small amounts of algal toxins -- like those found in the Florida

study -- dangerous or fatal to humans over time? Data from a St s

River Water Management District study last year have yet to be made

public. All these water plants had one thing in common: they draw

from surface waters -- all plagued by algae blooms that usually come

and go.

Some Florida residents who drink from surface water -- people in

Tampa, Melbourne and Bay County -- might never learn whether there is

poison from algae in their water. Their treatment plants refused to

be tested. St s biologists tested for algae and their toxins at

15 of the 20 water treatment plants [that] use surface water to

satisfy the thirst of 2.2 million Florida residents. Of the 422

samples scrutinized between February and October 2000, 2 plants

emerged with particularly high levels of toxins -- the one on the

Peace River and the plant in West Palm Beach.

The Peace River plant meets all federal standards for drinking water,

said Pat Leaman, executive director of the Peace River/Manasota

Regional Water Supply Authority. The United States [sets no] limits

for toxic algae in drinking water. Leaman said Florida treatment

plants, including his plant, use the latest technology to clean

surface water. Florida's Department of Health has been quick to say

it has no reported illnesses involving algae. " Nobody has been sick, "

said Leaman, who runs the Peace River plant. But other scientists

said people could be sick and not connect their illness to toxin from

algae.

http://praise.manoa.hawaii.edu/news/eh161.html