Period 5 element dimethyl telluride, (CH)Te, a gas with a garlic-like odor which is exhaled in the breath of victims of tellurium toxicity or exposure. Iodine is the heaviest essential element utilized widely by life in biological functions (only tungsten, employed in enzymes by a few species of bacteria, is heavier). Iodine's rarity in many soils, due to initial low abundance as a crust-element, and also leaching of soluble iodide by rainwater, has led to many deficiency problems in land animals and inland human populations. Iodine deficiency affects about two billion people and is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disabilities. Iodine is
DNA repair-deficiency disorder which may give rise to cancer. Germ-line DNA repair mutations that increase the risk of cancer are listed in the Table. DNA repair-deficiency disorder A DNA repair-deficiency disorder is a medical condition due to reduced functionality of DNA repair. DNA repair defects can cause an accelerated aging disease or an increased risk of cancer, or sometimes both. DNA repair defects are seen in nearly all of the diseases described as accelerated aging disease, in which various tissues, organs or systems of the human body age prematurely. Because the accelerated aging diseases display different aspects of aging, but never every aspect,