On Jan 7, 12:40*pm, Dave > wrote:
> http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/...vy-Metals-Foun...
>
> David Christainsen

Fortunately you can read the complete article in this case. The
authors seem to be using the experimental data of others to evaluate a
very crude index that, if exceeded, may indicate some health concern.
However there seems to be no consideration of in what compounds and
in what valence state the heavy metals exist in wine. To take one
extreme example, mercury exists commonly in 2 valence states in
compounds. In one valence state, you do not have extremely high
toxicity, although one of the more effective laxatives used in the
earlier days of medicine was a mercury compound. In another common
valence state, mercury is extremely toxic and can even result in a
very painful death. Also some metals combine with organic materials,
and the toxicity of these can be greater or lower than that of ionic
solutions of metal compounds. Thus, to evaluate the importance of
trace metals in wine or other drinks or foods, one needs to do
detailed studies to determine what valence state the metal is in, if
present in ionic water soluble compounds, and any organic compounds
containing trace metals need to be detected, and if new compounds are
detected, the toxity vs concentration of these need to be determined.
Only then can one determine which metals in wine may be of concern.

Some crude oils contain high concentrations of trace metals. I have
seen results for a very few crude oils that contain several hundred
ppm of vanadium and over 50 ppm nickel. Part, but not all, of these
metals are in a class of organic compounds called metallo porphyrins
Although most people do not ingest crude oil, these metals have been
of concern to the petroleum industry, because they can "poison"
expensive catalysts, often made from precious metals, that often are
used in refining heavy crude oil to result in more lighter
hydrocarbons to use in gasoline and other fuels and to produce less
material most useful for paving roads.

The main conclusion I draw from the complete paper is that it
indicates much more research of the type I mentioned is needed.