Although exposure to copper results almost exclusively
from food and water intake, acute copper toxicity
is infrequent in humans and is usually the consequence
of consumption of contaminated foodstuffs or
beverages, including drinking water, or from accidental
or deliberate ingestion of high quantities of copper
salts. Acute symptoms include excessive salivation, epigastric
pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Intravascular
hemolytic anemia, acute liver failure, acute tubular
renal failure, shock, coma, and death have been
observed in severe copper poisoning (U.S. EPA, 1987;
National Institute of Public Health and Environmental
Protection, 1989). In the United States, the new dietary
recommendations will expand the traditional approach
that emphasizes traditional recommended dietary allowances
to include estimates of deficient levels and
upper safe limits for most healthy people