From contrast media: gadolinium detected in beverages

    

    

Doctors newspaper online, 31.08.2019

    

        
        
        

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From contrast media

Researchers have found gadolinium from MRI contrast media in drinks from fast food restaurants.

BREMEN. Researchers led by Professor Michael Bau from Jacobs University Bremen have already detected gadolinium from contrast media in many rivers and drinking water in some German cities, and scientists have now found it in foods ( Science of the Total Environment 2019; 687: 1401-1408 ).

In cola drinks from fast food restaurants in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Essen, Karlsruhe, Munich and Dresden, they reported gadolinium. The substance is especially used in radiological MRI examinations.

Measured concentrations not hazardous to health

According to the current state of knowledge, the measured concentrations are not hazardous to health, but an indicator of the possible presence of other residues from the wastewater in the drinks, reports Jacobs University.

Contrast media have become indispensable in medical diagnostics, and the quantities of contrast media consumed increased from year to year. This also applies to MRI contrast agents based on gadolinium. Patients get rid of it in the hospital or at home, and the sewage goes to the local sewage treatment plants. These can not remove the contrast media from the water and introduce them into rivers and lakes.

Part of this gadolinium is taken into the sea by the rivers, where it already contaminates the North Sea, for example, while it also enters the groundwater with the infiltrating river water. Due to drinking water from groundwater and bank filtrate, the contrast agent gadolinium is ultimately also found in tap water.

In addition, recent data from the Berlin researchers in Berlin show that drinking water in individual districts in Berlin, such as samples from Bahnhof Zoo or Clay Allee, not only has the highest proportions (99 percent) of anthropogenic gadolinium measured in tap water in the world but that in recent years they have again increased significantly.

Gadolinium in drinking water

But also in the other cities studied, part of gadolinium in drinking water comes from MRI contrast media: 31 percent in Bremen, 34 percent in Karlsruhe, 63 percent in Dresden, 85 percent in Dusseldorf and 91 percent in Munich. And as the number of MRI examinations continues to increase, this trend toward higher contrast media concentrations in drinking water will continue to increase.

In the current study, cola drinks from branches of known fast-food chains were examined in the cities examined and compared with the tap water samples from the respective district. The result is clear: The drinks show almost the same levels of contrast agent gadolinium as the local tap water.

This is not surprising for the geochemist Bau: "In branches of fast-food restaurants, the cola syrup is mixed with tap water and CO ₂ . Although the restaurants state that this tap water will be additionally cleaned beforehand, this cleaning step is obviously unable to remove the residual contrast, "Bau is quoted in the Jacobs University Communication. (eb)

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