This study used ethnographic methods to examine the perception of mercury contamination by adolescents in the mining community of Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brazil. In Phase I, 53 students aged 13 to 16 years in six schools presented theatrical sketches about community health risks to generate key terms for a pile sorting activity in Phase II. Mercury was reported by four of the 15 groups (26%). In P...

The most common bacterial mercury resistance mechanism is based on the reduction of Hg(II) to Hg(0), which is dependent of the mercuric reductase enzyme (MerA) activity. The use of a 431 bp fragment of a conservative region of the mercuric reductase (merA) gene was applied as a molecular marker of this mechanism, allowing the identification of mercury resistant bacterial strains.

A catalysis-based, label-free, and high-throughput colorimetric protocol has been initially proposed for detecting mercury(II) in blood and wastewater with 96-cell plates, based on the mercury-enhanced catalytic activity of small silver nanoparticles synthesized in a gelatin matrix with unique temperature switchable sol-gel transition.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Mercury pollution is one of the most pressing environmental problems. Therefore, the impact of mercury on human body, the nervous system in particular, remains topical. The aim of the study was to identify the morphological characteristics of neurons and neuroglia in spinal ganglia of rats receiving antioxidants in the presence of small doses of mercury (II) chloride. ...

A sensitive fluorescence optosensing method for the determination of Hg(II) in water samples is described. The method, using a flow injection technique, is based on the immobilization on a non-ionic-exchanger solid support (packed in a flow cell placed in a conventional fluorimeter) of the thiochrome formed by the oxidation of thiamine with Hg(II) in a continuous flow carrier at pH 8.1. Experim...

The luminescence of mercury clusters in the gas phase has been studied extensively in the past [ 11. Mercury vapor shows many emission bands including the ultraviolet (A,,=335 nm) and green (1,,,=485 nm) luminescence which originate from excited dimers Hg2 and trimers Hg,, respectively. In contrast to the gas phase very little is known about the emission of mercury clusters in the condensed pha...

3 ilver-mercury fillings—also called dental or mercury amalgams— ave been used in dentistry since 1832. In 1840, the dental ssociation of the day argued over whether to use mercury as filling material because it was cheap, or to withdraw it ecause it was toxic. The safety debate had already begun and ould be called “Amalgam War I.” In the late 1920s, Dr Alfred tock, a biochemist and researcher,...