Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27833648›Full record

ArticleJournal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England)2016

Alternative drugs go global: possible lead and/ or mercury intoxication from imported natural health products and a need for scientifically evaluated poisoning monitoring from environmental exposures.

Lygia Therese Budnik, Xaver Baur, Volker Harth, Axel Hahn

Open access · goldAbstract readCase Reports
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.5field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. The Content of Mercury in Herbal Dietary Supplements.Biological trace element research · 2018
    Article
  7. Patients' perceptions and use of natural health products.Canadian pharmacists journal : CPJ = Revue des pharmaciens du Canada : RPC
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Lygia Therese BudnikInstitute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine (ZfAM), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany ; European Society for Environmental and Occupational Medicine (EOM), Berlin, Germany ; Occupational Toxicology and Immunology, Institute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine (ZfAM), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Marckmannstrasse 129 B, 20539 Hamburg, Germany.
Xaver BaurCharite Institute for Occupational Medicine (CIOM), Charite-University Medicine, Berlin, Germany ; European Society for Environmental and Occupational Medicine (EOM), Berlin, Germany.
Volker HarthInstitute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine (ZfAM), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Axel HahnFederal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany.
Universität Hamburg · DECharité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin · DEFederal Institute for Risk Assessment · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundWith increases in globalization, cultural remedies from Chinese, Ayurvedic, Arab and other traditions have become more available to international consumers, offering unfamiliar "Natural Health Products" (NHP), used as alternative medicine or supplementary medicine. Contamination with toxic ingredients including lead, mercury, arsenic, and other toxic elements has been documented in several of these products from various parts of the globe, particularly from some parts of Asia and the Orient.

findingsWe have been following this development in the last 6 years and have analyzed

conclusionsFor NHP there is evidence on a distinct toxicological risk with alarming low awareness for a possible intoxication which prevents potentially life-saving diagnostic steps in affected cases. In many cases patients do not communicate the events to their physicians or the local health authority so that case reports (e.g. the BfR-DocCentre) are missing. Thus, there is an urgent need to raise awareness and to initiate more suitable monitory systems (e.g. National Monitoring of Poisonings) and control practice protecting the public.

Indexed as

Dietary supplementsHeavy metal intoxicationLeadMercuryMonitoringNatural health productsPrevention measures

Identifiers

PMID27833648
PMCPMC5101689
OpenAlexW2556326474

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.