Mercury Poisoning in Children (A report of two patients)

THE SUGGESTION IN 1948 that mercury poisoning was the principal cause of pink disease (acrodynia) in children (Warkany and Hubbard, 1948; Fanconi and Botezn, 1948) resulted in the withdrawal from sale of all mercury containing teething powders in the United Kingdom. There followed a dramatic decline in the reported frequency of the disease (Dathan and Harvey, 1965) and during the past twenty years very few case reports have been published. This present report of two children with mercury poisoning, one of whom presented with a classical picture of pink disease, emphasises the risk of mercury absorption through the skin and highlights the dangers of folk lore medicine as a source of mercury poisoning.