UNLV employee Ding Yongsheng talks about the graphite furnace that is used to measure metal concentration and analyze metal content in materials. Yongsheng and other graduate students talked about the new equipment at a ribbon-cutting for UNLV?s new Environmental and Occupational Health Lab on April 4. Photos by Shelly Donahue/View.
UNLV graduate student Tracy Donnelly talks about the lead levels in imported candy. Testing candy is just one of the tasks of the Environmental and Occupational Health Lab. UNLV researchers used the XRF Lead Analyzer to test candies imported from Mexico and South America, and their findings led the health district to pull the candies from more than 1,600 stores.
UNLV graduate student Tracy Donnelly holds a piece of imported candy. She said she has found that certain imported candies could contain more than one part per million of lead -- well above the .2 ppm limit for food. Donnelly and other graduates were on hand to talk to the public during the grand opening of UNLV's Environmental and Occupational Health Lab on April 4. Testing candy for lead is just one of the many issues the School of Public Health will tackle there.
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Tracy Donnelly pulls back the wrapping from a piece of Tama Roca, a fruit-based candy imported from Mexico.
Although the dried and seasoned fruit wrapped around a yellow straw seems innocent enough, Donnelly, a graduate student at UNLV's School of Public Health, says she has found that the straw could contain more than one part per million of lead--well above the .2 ppm limit for food.
"And what do kids do with this?" Donnelly asked, mimicking placing the candy in her mouth and taking a bite.
Testing candy for lead is just one of the many issues the School of Public Health will tackle with the opening of its new Environmental and Occupational Health Lab.
The lab officially opened April 4 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. Reid helped UNLV receive the $500,000 appropriation from the U.S. Department of Energy needed to fund the lab.
"We're here to celebrate Nevada having more in public health than it has in the past," Reid said.
Before the school received funding, founding dean of the School of Public Health Mary Guinan said there was no place in Nevada to test the amount of lead in blood or objects. The school received a hand-held X-Ray Florescence (XRF) Lead Analyzer that allowed the faculty and students to conduct tests on candy and lead-based paints.
"It's a wonderful day for Nevada," Guinan said.
To test the lead content of candy, Donnelly and other students gathered candy from stores within a 10-mile radius of UNLV. They used the XRF Lead Analyzer to test candies imported from Mexico and South America.
Their findings led the health district to pull the candies from more than 1,600 stores.
Researchers also used the XRF Lead Analyzer to test the presence of lead-based paint in local homes built before 1978. In Clark County, more than 147,000 homes exist that were built before that time.
Students also researched the mercury levels of fish in Lake Mead and Ash Meadows. Graduate student Elena Cabb was part of a team that studied the mercury content.
"We're really focusing on heavy metals," she said.
Cabb used a Cold Vapor Mercury Analyzer and a Gold Amalgamation Mercury Analyzer in addition to the XRF analyzer to test the mercury content in a fish sent from the University of Wisconsin and commercially-sold tuna.
In the future, the school plans to continue to monitor fish in Lake Mead.
Researchers also studied the existence of environmental contaminants, such as mercury, lead, PCBs, DDT, arsenic and selenium. Graduate student Melanie Gulmatico said monitoring animals could clue them in to what humans need to look out for.
"We do have the equipment to analyze anything," Gulmatico said.
Chair of the environmental and occupational health department Shawn Gerstenberger said he is happy to finally have the lab space and equipment.
The lab also has an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer used to measure surface waters and changes in water quality, nutrient concentrations and clarity; a graphite furnace used to measure metal concentration and analyze the metal content in samples; a microwave digester that is used to dissolve solid samples; and a gas chromatography mass spectroscopy used to identify unknown compounds such as pesticides.
"We wanted to make sure we could analyze the metal so we could address relevant Nevada issues," Gerstenberger said.
Gerstenberger said the school's findings will benefit the entire Las Vegas community. "We protect the masses, if you will," he said.
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