BACKGROUND In the Golestan Cohort Study that was launched to investigate the causes of esophageal cancer, a complete biospecimen bank was established for storage of collected blood, urine, hair, and nail samples. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of nail samples as a biomarker of selected trace elements status. METHODS Thirty toenail samples were selected randomly from...

Much of the mercury contamination in aquatic biota originates from coal-fired power plants, point sources that release mercury into the atmosphere. Understanding mercury dynamics is primarily important because of the toxic threat mercury poses to wildlife and humans through the consumption of contaminated fish. In this study, we quantified the relative importance of proximity to coal-fired powe...

Whereas many ecosystem characteristics and processes influence mercury accumulation in higher trophic-level organisms, the mercury flux from the atmosphere to a lake and its watershed is a likely factor in potential risk to biota. Atmospheric deposition clearly affects mercury accumulation in soils and lake sediments. Thus, knowledge of spatial patterns in atmospheric deposition may provide inf...

Evaluation of mercury exposure in an individual patient ideally includes the presenting history, physical examination, consideration of the differential diagnosis, and mercury analysis of blood and urine specimens. Analysis of mercury in hair specimens may supply useful supplemental information about exposure to organic compounds such as methylmercury, particularly to help reconstruct the patte...

BACKGROUND Colonial cinnabar mining and refining began in Huancavelica, Peru, in 1564. With a local source of mercury, the amalgamation process was adopted to refine silver in Potosí, Bolivia, in the early 1570s. As a result, large quantities of mercury were released into the environment. OBJECTIVES We used archival, primary, and secondary sources to develop the first estimate of mercury emis...

This review focuses on mercury speciation in the Adriatic Sea, a marginal sea of the Mediterranean, which represents its distinct biogeochemical subunit due to anthropogenic mercury loadings. The current knowledge about mercury cycling in the Adriatic is presented through an overview of the state of the art of research in this area: temporal and spatial distributions and occurrence of mercury s...

The production and use of chemicals is an important source of economic welfare in Ghana. However, many chemicals also enter the environment and chemical pollution remains a major environmental issue in Ghana. In Ghana, mining and agriculture remain the major contributors to chemical pollution. For mining; mercury, cyanide and arsenic are normally the reported cases of contamination. Studies hav...

Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring element that poses considerable health risks to humans, primarily through the consumption of fish which have accumulated harmful levels of mercury in their tissue. This bioaccumulation of mercury in fish is a result of elevated exposure from a number of sources including industrial emissions, atmospheric deposition, and mercury-bearing products such as ther...

The purpose of this article is to describe health conditions in a pan-mining community, in particular the interaction of mercury contamination with other health problems. This study was carried out in a panning mine located on Rato Creek, a tributary of the Tapajó s River Basin in the municipality of Itaituba, State of Par The study population consisted of 223 individuals. An epidemiological qu...

For many years the Savannah River has suffered fish consumption warnings. While several potential sources of mercury may contribute to this contamination, the chlor-alkali facility in Augusta, which produces chlorine by electrolysis using mercury-cell technology, is a major potential contributor. To examine this possibility samples of sediment were collected from the river above and below the f...