The mobility, bioavailability and toxicity of mercury in the environment strongly depend on the chemical species in which it is present in soil, sediments, water or air. In mining districts, differences in mobility and bioavailability of mercury mainly arise from the different type of mineralization and ore processing. In this work, synchrotron-based X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XAN...

Sample measurement of mercury (Hg) contents is a common method for health risk assessment of Hg through vegetable consumption in China. In the present work, we undertook the first modelling study which produced consistent health-risk maps for the whole eastern China. Regional maps of Probable Daily Intake (PDI) of Total mercury (THg) and Methylmercury (MeHg) over the studied area were produced,...

Recent studies have established that men are susceptible to cardiotoxicity from methylmercury exposure, which also poses risks to the pregnant woman. Hair samples were obtained and questionnaires for methylmercury exposure assessment were administered to 110 adults (57 men, 53 women) throughout O'ahu, Hawai'i during December 2010 to January 2011. Hair samples were analyzed for total mercury wit...

A methylene blue-mediated enzyme biosensor has been developed for the detection of inhibitors including mercury(II), mercury(I), methylmercury, and mercury–glutathione complex. The inhibition to horseradish peroxidase was apparently reversible and noncompetitive in the presence of HgCl2 in less than 8 s and irreversibly inactivated when incubated with different concentrations of HgCl2 for 1–8 m...

The standard procedure for the determination of chlorine in organic compounds of mercury consists in decomposition of the material, separation of mercury and determination of chlorine as chloride. Decomposition of the sample could be achieved by wet mineralization [1,2], ignition in a stream of oxygen [3—7] or nitrogen [8], ignition in a flask with oxygen [9], etc. [10, 11]. Chlorine and mercur...

To clarify the maternal-fetal transfer of mercury across the placenta, inorganic and organic mercury were determined in 41 paired samples of maternal blood, placenta, umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord obtained from pregnant women who had no particular exposure to mercury compounds in their history. Both inorganic and organic mercury were detected in all the samples but the ratio of organi...

Thimerosal, which releases the ethyl mercury radical as the active species, has been used as a preservative in many currently marketed vaccines throughout the world. Because of concerns that its toxicity could be similar to that of methyl mercury, it is no longer incorporated in many vaccines in the United States. There are reasons to believe, however, that the disposition and toxicity of ethyl...

The structures of the organomercury compounds have been reviewed from the point of view of the secondary bonds which mercury atom forms with the surrounding atoms. These bonds, though rather labile, exhibit a definite influence on the crystal structure which is manifested in a peculiar coordination around the mercury atom. This influence has to be studied systematically since the mercury coordi...