People are exposed to mercury in daily life by means of food, batteries, broken thermometers and fluorescent lamps, and amalgam. Neurotoxicity and reproductive toxicity of mercury are well known. However, the relationship between mercury poisoning and its effects on the cardiac conduction system has not been clearly identified. Sodium 2, 3-dimercaptopropane-1-sulfonate (DMPS) is a metal chelati...

INTRODUCTION Heavy metals can negatively influence the reproduction due to the fact that they are able to impair the immune reactions including autoantibody production in susceptible individuals. In such a way the infertility could be also caused by altered pathologic immune reaction. AIM OF THE STUDY To investigate the in vitro lymphocyte reaction after stimulation with metals and production...

A male subject, after exposure to mercury metal at work in 1968, developed classical signs of mercurialism from which he made a slow clinical recovery. He subsequently developed psychoneurotic symptoms and became an alcoholic; he never returned to work and died in 1984. No histological changes relevant to mercury intoxication were found in the brain, but staining by Danscher & Schroeder's metho...

BACKGROUND Environmental and occupational exposure to metals is ubiquitous worldwide, and understanding the hazardous metal components in this complex mixture is essential for environmental and occupational regulations. OBJECTIVE To identify hazardous components from metal mixtures that are associated with alterations in cardiac autonomic responses. METHODS Urinary concentrations of 16 type...

Biosorption is a process in which solids of natural origin are employed for binding heavy metals. It is a promising alternative method to treat industrial effluents, mainly because of its low cost and high metal binding capacity. In this work, the mercury and iron biosorption process by Sargassum sp. seaweed biomass was studied. The work considered the parameters of mercury and iron sorption su...

An electrical junction formed by mechanical contact between two self-assembled monolayers (SAMs)--a SAM formed from an dialkyl disulfide with a covalently linked tetracyanoquinodimethane group that is supported by silver (or gold) and a SAM formed from an alkanethiolate SAM that is supported by mercury-rectifies current. The precursor to the SAM on silver (or gold) was bis(20-(2-((2,5-cyclohexa...

Background: Aquatic ecosystems are frequently subjected to contamination by toxic heavy metals and pesticides, yet very little is known about the influence of pesticides on bioaccumulation of heavy metals in aquatic organisms. Mercury is a toxic metal with no known biological benefit to organisms. Bioavailability of mercury in aquatic environments depends on biological and non-biological parame...

BACKGROUND Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a chronic condition characterized by an exaggerated response to toxicants. We ascertained the prevalence of allergy to metals and toxicological aspects in MCS patients. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of medical records of 41 patients with MCS. We performed patch testing (n = 21) for dental series and did lymphocyte transformation ...

The effect of dietary zinc status on biliary excretion of zinc, cadmium and mercury administered as a bolus of metal chloride (1 mg metal/kg body weight i.v.) was studied. Female rats were fed a purified diet containing either 9 micrograms/g (low), 45 micrograms/g (adequate) or 1150 micrograms/g (high) zinc for 8 d. Hepatic metallothionein (MT) was similar in low- and adequate-zinc groups, but ...