Mercury (Hg) is currently considered a global pollutant. Mercury is a significant environmental toxin and has a huge impact on human health, causing irreversible damage to the central nervous system, especially in the most vulnerable stages of life. Medical centers contribute to 4-5% of the total mercury present in drainage waters. Practices should be introduced to reduce mercury use with the a...

In this method for quantitative determination of mercury in blood, urine, and hair, the specimen is first digested in a mixture of solid potassium permanganate and concentrated sulfuric acid. Excess oxidizing agent is reduced by hydroxylamine hydrochloride. The mercury liberated with stannous chloride is quantified by measuring its absorbance at 254 nm. This method shortens digestion time consi...

Mercury vapor induces ethylene formation and abscission in Citrus and Coleus explants. Both responses are markedly greater in the absence of CO(2). The stimulation of these metabolically complex processes indicates that the action of mercury vapor is not consistent with the more popular conception of mercury toxicity. This was manifested in its complete failure to disturb respiratory gas exchan...

This study brings a new viewpoint based on multiple-tissue analyses to form the basis for a predictive mode of mercury accumulation dynamics in fish body under field conditions. Total mercury (T-Hg) was determined in key tissues of Liza aurata captured along an estuarine contamination gradient, displaying the following hierarchy: kidney > liver > muscle > brain > gills > blood. Brain was the ti...

There are some 60 gold-mining sites in the Bento Gomes River basin (Mato Grosso), at the border of the Mato Grosso Pantanal (Swamp), where mercury is used to agglutinate fine gold particles through amalgamation. During burning of the amalgam to release the gold, mercury vapor is lost to the atmosphere, since closed systems for mercury recovery are not always used. This study shows the results o...

BACKGROUND Organic mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant of concern and selenium is believed to afford protection against mercury risk though few approaches exist to rapidly assess both chemicals in biological samples. Here, micro-scale and rapid methods to detect organic mercury (< 1.5 ml total sample volume, < 1.5 hour) and total selenium (Se; < 3.0 ml total volume, < 3 hour) from a range of bio...

Mercury toxicity is highly correlated with hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke and other cardiovascular disease. Mercury has a high affinity for sulfhydryl (-SH) groups, which inactivates numerous enzymatic reactions, amino acids, and sulfur-containing antioxidants [NAC (n-acetyl cysteine, ALA (alpha lipoic acid), GSH (glutathione)], with subsequent de...

Patients with hypogammaglobulinaemia commonly receive regular long-term replacement therapy with a concentrate of pooled normal human immunoglobulin G (IgG) containing an organic mercury compound (thiomersal) as a preservative. In 26 such patients the total estimated mercury dosage received ranged from 4 to 734 mg (mean 157 mg) over treatment periods of six months to 17 years (mean 6.5 years). ...

We measured total mercury concentrations in water and fish of Lake Managua and Lake Apoyo. Water mercury concentrations were 10-fold higher in Lake Managua than in Lake Apoyo, although differences in mercury concentration in the most common native fish were not significant. One-fourth of the commercially fished tilapia in Lake Managua exceeded maximum recommended mercury levels for consumption ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Long-term contact with mercury may induce membranous nephropathy (MN); however, the clinical pathologic features and pathogenesis of mercury-induced MN have not been investigated. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS The present study retrospectively evaluated 11 cases of mercury-induced MN to analyze its causes and its clinical and pathologic features. RE...