Dentists all over the world remove millions of amalgam fillings every day, with no regard for the possible mercury exposure that can result from grinding them out. Much of the time, a new amalgam filling goes back in place of the old one. The dental establishment claims that amalgam is a stable material, that emits little or no mercury, but then turns around and blames the mercury–free dentists...

Mercury in dentistry has re-emerged as a contentious issue in public health, predominantly because so many people are inadvertently exposed to mercury in order to obtain the benefits of dental amalgam fillings, and the risks remain difficult to interpret. This commentary aims to examine the issues involved in public policy assessment of the continued use of dental amalgam in dentistry. More tha...

Effects of Mercury Vapour Exposure at Low Concentrations on Urinary Activity of N-AcetylBeta-D-Glucosaminidase: Nobuo IS H I H A R A. Research Centre for Occupational Disease, Tohoku Rosai Hospital—Effects of exposure to mercury vapour less than 0.02 mg Hg/m3 on urinary N-Acetylbeta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) activity were studied in seven Japanese workers from 1991 to 1997. According to the recor...

Human exposure to mercury is still a major public health concern. In this context, children have a higher susceptibility to adverse neurological mercury effects, compared to adults with similar exposures. Moreover, there exists a marked variability of personal response to detrimental mercury action, in particular among population groups with significant mercury exposure. New scientific evidence...

Metallothioneins are encoded by a family of genes that are induced by inorganic mercury. Despite the well-characterized acute response of metallothionein (MT) genes in the kidneys and liver after a single exposure to inorganic mercury, relatively little is known about the activity of these genes and the content of MT protein during prolonged periods after exposure. Rats treated with inorganic m...

BACKGROUND central auditory processing and exposure to metallic mercury. AIM to evaluate the performance on tests of central auditory processing in adolescents exposed to metallic mercury. METHOD participants were 52 adolescents, of both genders, who presented hearing thresholds within normal limits. The study group (SG) was composed by 21 adolescents who worked on the burning of gold-mercu...

Mercury exposure in the Amazon has been studied since the 1980s decade and the assessment of human mercury exposure in the Amazon is difficult given that the natural occurrence of this metal is high and the concentration of mercury in biological samples of this population exceeds the standardized value of normality established by WHO. Few studies have focused on the discovery of mercury biomark...

In 2009, we conducted a survey to assess the use of mercury-based thermometers and sphygmomanometers and their disposal in Croatian healthcare facilities. The questionnaire addressing the use of mercury-based medical devices, waste management, preferences between mercury-based and electronic devices, and the knowledge on mercury toxicity was filled by ward nurses affiliated with 40 (71.4 %) out...

BACKGROUND Mercury is a metal with widespread distribution in aquatic ecosystems and significant neurodevelopmental toxicity in humans. Fish biomonitoring for total mercury has been conducted in South Carolina (SC) since 1976, and consumption advisories have been posted for many SC waterways. However, there is limited information on the potential reproductive impacts of mercury due to recreatio...

Residents of a former factory building converted to apartments were exposed to mercury over a 2-year period. The neurobehavioral and emotional health effects of this exposure and subsequent evacuation are presented. Urine mercury levels were measured before (urine1) and 3-10 weeks after evacuation (urine2) of the building, when neurobehavioral and psychological measures were also completed. Per...