Macro and trace - elements in drinking water and diet; correlations with chronic diseases. - Note 1: Calcium, Magnesium, Cobalt, Chromium, Manganese, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Cadmium, Lead in drinking water in the Province of Macerata.

After a brief review of the biological action and the role played by macro - and trace elements in diet and especially in drinking water, a systematic dose-sampling of some of these elemnts (Ca, Mg, Cr, Cd, Co, Cn, Zn, Pb, Ni and Mn) was carried out in 126 aquaducts and 30 springs in the Province of Macerata. The concentration of the trace elemnts considere proved greatly inferior to the limit-values indicated by OMS for drinking water and such as not to represent in any way a toxic risk for the users. As can be seen from the maps, the distribution of cobalt, nickel, chromium, manganese and cadmium show fairly homogeneous progress; greater variation emerged for copper, zinc, and lead, the values of which at distribution, compared with those determined at source, showed a constant significant increase (being elemnts that are more easily lost from the pipes). The contribution of oligoelemnts in drinking water in comparisono with the quntities ingested with foodstuffs represents a rather modest percentage (0.1% - 2.3%), but it must be emphasied that their presence in water in ionic form permits their almost complete absorption by the organism. The Authors, finally, underline the importance of the exact knowledge of the mineral contribution partcularly for possible correlations with chronic diseases: as far as thise is concerned, according to the Authors, more attention ought to be given to the quantitative relations between the elemnts, and therefore to the mineral imbalance, rather to the absolute concentrations of the individual trace elements.