The Republic of Ireland (RoI) is the only European Country with a mandatory national legislation requiring artificial fluoridation of drinking water and has the highest per capita consumption of black tea in the world. Tea is a hyperaccumulator of fluoride and chronic fluoride intake is associated with multiple negative health outcomes. In this study, fifty four brands of the commercially available black tea bag products were purchased and the fluoride level in tea infusions tested by an ion-selective electrode method. The fluoride content in all brands tested ranged from 1.6 to 6.1 mg/L, with a mean value of 3.3 mg/L. According to our risk assessment it is evident that the general population in the RoI is at a high risk of chronic fluoride exposure and associated adverse health effects based on established reference values. We conclude that the culture of habitual tea drinking in the RoI indicates that the total cumulative dietary fluoride intake in the general population could readily exceed the levels known to cause chronic fluoride intoxication. Evidence suggests that excessive fluoride intake may be contributing to a wide range of adverse health effects. Therefore from a public health perspective, it would seem prudent and sensible that risk reduction measures be implemented to reduce the total body burden of fluoride in the population.

β-alanine is an amino acid that, when combined with histidine, forms the dipeptide carnosine within skeletal muscle. Carnosine and β-alanine each have multiple purposes within the human body; this review focuses on their roles as ergogenic aids to exercise performance and suggests how to best quantify the former’s merits as a buffer. Carnosine normally makes a small contribution to a cell’s total buffer capacity; yet β-alanine supplementation raises intracellular carnosine concentrations that in turn improve a muscle’s ability to buffer protons. Numerous studies assessed the impact of oral β-alanine intake on muscle carnosine levels and exercise performance. β-alanine may best act as an ergogenic aid when metabolic acidosis is the primary factor for compromised exercise performance. Blood lactate kinetics, whereby the concentration of the metabolite is measured as it enters and leaves the vasculature over time, affords the best opportunity to assess the merits of β-alanine supplementation’s ergogenic effect. Optimal β-alanine dosages have not been determined for persons of different ages, genders and nutritional/health conditions. Doses as high as 6.4 g day⁻¹, for ten weeks have been administered to healthy subjects. Paraesthesia is to date the only side effect from oral β-alanine ingestion. The severity and duration of paraesthesia episodes are dose-dependent. It may be unwise for persons with a history of paraesthesia to ingest β-alanine. As for any supplement, caution should be exercised with β-alanine supplementation.

Ozone models for the city of Tulsa were developed using neural network modeling techniques. The neural models were developed using meteorological data from the Oklahoma Mesonet and ozone, nitric oxide, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) data from Environmental Protection Agency monitoring sites in the Tulsa area. An initial model trained with only eight surface meteorological input variables and NO2 was able to simulate ozone concentrations with a correlation coefficient of 0.77. The trained model was then used to evaluate the sensitivity to the primary variables that affect ozone concentrations. The most important variables (NO2, temperature, solar radiation, and relative humidity) showed response curves with strong nonlinear codependencies. Incorporation of ozone concentrations from the previous 3 days into the model increased the correlation coefficient to 0.82. As expected, the ozone concentrations correlated best with the most recent (1-day previous) values. The model’s correlation coefficient was i... Abstract Ozone models for the city of Tulsa were developed using neural network modeling techniques. The neural models were developed using meteorological data from the Oklahoma Mesonet and ozone, nitric oxide, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) data from Environmental Protection Agency monitoring sites in the Tulsa area. An initial model trained with only eight surface meteorological input variables and NO2 was able to simulate ozone concentrations with a correlation coefficient of 0.77. The trained model was then used to evaluate the sensitivity to the primary variables that affect ozone concentrations. The most important variables (NO2, temperature, solar radiation, and relative humidity) showed response curves with strong nonlinear codependencies. Incorporation of ozone concentrations from the previous 3 days into the model increased the correlation coefficient to 0.82. As expected, the ozone concentrations correlated best with the most recent (1-day previous) values. The model’s correlation coefficient was i...