A therapeutic regimen for purging dieldrin from adulterated individuals
SummaryIn four feedlots 1013 steers had become contaminated by being fed over 50% of their diet as cull seed potatoes containing 0.1 to 0.2 ppm dieldrin (dry weight basis), developing residues of up to 0.76 ppm (rendered fat). These residues were in excess of federal guidelines (0.30 ppm, rendered fat), but considered non-pathological and without physiological effect. Application of a therapeutic regimen, consisting of an initial injection of testosterone propionate and vitamins A, D and E and of daily oral doses of phenobarbital (first 20 days only) and activated charcoal in a finishing ration, resulted in marked reductions in dieldrin residues within 30 days. The rate of dieldrin loss was increased six-fold and the residual half-life reduced from a reported 150 to 250 days to about 25 to 80 days. The effectiveness of individual components or combinations was not evaluated, but the rate of charcoal feeding appeared most important.
Placental transfer of dieldrin in dairy heifers contaminated during three stages of gestation.
Abstract Placental transfer of dieldrin was shown in each of 33 dairy calves born to dams contaminated during gestation. Neither the stage of gestation during which contamination occurred nor the dieldrin concentration in body fat of the contaminated dams appeared to affect residue levels found in the calves at birth. Approximately 0.9% of the dieldrin ingested by the dams was recovered in the calves. Residue in calves contaminated in utero decreased with age and was not detectable in four of five calves at one year of age.
Coronial Practice, Indigeneity and Suicide
All available data suggest that, like many other Indigenous peoples, Australian Aborigines are significantly more likely to kill themselves than are non-Aboriginal Australians. This statistical disparity is normally positioned an objective, ontological and undeniable social fact, a fact best explained as a function of endemic community disadvantage and disenfranchisement. This research explores the possibility that higher-than-normal Aboriginal suicide rates may also be a function of coronial decision-making practices. Based upon in-depth interviews with 32 coroners from across Australia, the following conclusions emerged from the data. First, coroners have differing perceptions of Indigenous capacity, and are less likely to have concerns about intent when the suicide is committed by an Indigenous person. Second, coroners have identified divergent scripts of Indigenous suicide, particularly its spontaneity and public location, and this supports rather than challenges, a finding of suicide. Third, the coronial perception of Indigenous life is a factor which influences a suicide determination for Indigenous deaths. Finally, the low level of Indigenous engagement with the coronial system, and the unlikelihood of a challenge to the finding of suicide by Indigenous families, means that a coronial determination of suicide is more likely.