In this issue (page 1439) Dr. Charles Dumont and colleagues report a substantial fall in mercury levels (as measured by the concentration of methylmercury in hair samples) from 1988 to 1993 among Crees living in the James Bay area of Quebec. Fish in hydroelectric reservoirs had been found to be contaminated with mercury and, in 1988, 14.2% of the population of the area had levels of 15.0 mg/kg ...

The enormous increase in practically unregulated mining in Madre de Dios Peru is leading to massive release of liquid elemental mercury to the environment. Rapidly increasing global prices for gold are causing a massive upsurge in artisanal mining in the Peruvian Amazon, considered to be one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. This study identifies the current levels of mercury in the ...

BACKGROUND The neurotoxic effects of methylmercury (MeHg) have been demonstrated in both human and animal studies. Both adult and fetal brains are susceptible to the effects of MeHg toxicity. However, the specific effects of adult exposures have been less well-documented than those of children with prenatal exposures. This is largely because few studies of MeHg exposures in adults have used sen...

The concentrations of trace metals in hair of fishermen from the Persian Gulf region were assessed to detect the relationships between element levels in hair and potential factors influencing these relationships. The hair of 19 fishermen were sampled from six stations in the Persian Gulf (Abadan, Deylam, BushehrNirogah, Dayyer, Lengeh and Bandar Abbas in Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan provinc...

Mercury is added to the biosphere by anthropogenic activities raising the question of whether changes in the human chromatin, induced by mercury, in a parental generation could allow adaptation of their descendants to mercury. We review the history of Andean mining since pre-Hispanic times in Huancavelica, Peru. Despite the persistent degradation of the biosphere today, no overt signs of mercur...

Prenatal methylmercury exposure is associated with neuropsychological deficits in Faroese children at age 7 years. Lower confidence bounds of benchmark doses (BMDLs) have now been calculated. With the cord-blood mercury concentration as the dose parameter, a logarithmic dose-response model tended to show a better fit than a linear dose model for the attention, language and verbal memory tests. ...

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 ...

Introduction Mercury poisoning causes hearing loss in humans and animals. Acute and long-term exposures produce irreversible peripheral and central auditory system damage, and mercury in its various forms of presentation in the environment is ototoxic. Objective We investigated the otoacoustic emissions responses in a riverside population exposed to environmental mercury by analyzing the inhibi...

The mercury rejected in the water system, from mining operations and lixiviation of soils after deforestation, is considered to be the main contributors to the contamination of the ecosystem in the Amazon Basin. The objectives of the present study were to examine cytogenetic functions in peripheral lymphocytes within a population living on the banks of the Tapajós River with respect to methylme...