BACKGROUND The continuous exposure to inorganic mercury vapour in artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas leads to chronic health problems. It is therefore essential to have a quick, but reliable risk assessing tool to diagnose chronic inorganic mercury intoxication. This study re-evaluates the state-of-the-art toolkit to diagnose chronic inorganic mercury intoxication by analysing data ...

BACKGROUND Mercury is a toxic metal with its effects on human health ranging from acute to chronic in a very short time of exposure. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the main source of direct human exposure to mercury. AIM To access the effect of mercury exposure on the renal function and level of personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance among small-scale gold miners in B...

occupational exposure to elemental mercury vapor usually occurs through inhalation during its utilizations. this leads to a variety of adverse health effects. in some islamic cities, this type of poisoning may occur during gilding of shrines using elemental mercury with gold. herein, we report on three male patients aged 20–53 years, who were diagnosed with occupational metallic mercury poisoni...

OBJECTIVES Gold miners use mercury to extract gold from ore adding liquid mercury to the milled gold-containing ore. This results in a mercury-gold compound, called amalgam. Miners smelt this amalgam to obtain gold, vaporizing it and finally inhaling the toxic mercury fumes. The objective was to merge and analyze data from different projects, to identify typical signs and symptoms of chronic in...

background: mercury is widespread and persistent in the environment. one organic form of mercury, methylmercury (mehg), can accumulate in the food chain in aquatic ecosystems and lead to high concentrations of mehg in fish, which, when consumed by humans, can result in an increased risk of adverse effects. currently, the joint fao/who expert committee on food additives (jecfa) has established p...

OBJECTIVE To study the mortality from cardiovascular and other chronic non-neoplastic diseases after long term exposure to inorganic mercury. Limited information is available on the effect of chronic exposure to mercury on the cardiovascular system. METHODS The mortality was studied among 6784 male and 265 female workers from four mercury mines and mills in Spain, Slovenia, Italy, and the Ukr...

Outbreaks of methylmercury poisoning in Japan and Iraq have demonstrated the sensitivity of the fetus to neurotoxic effects. Based on toxicokinetics and considerations of practicability, the optimal biomarker of methylmercury exposure is the hair concentration, but whole-blood measurements of mercury are also useful. Dose-response relations are still incompletely known, especially concentrating...