We reevaluate the treatment of mercury poisoning, incorporating recent advances in understanding toxicity and mercury:selenium interaction. This review focuses on: 1) role, limitations benefits chelation (Unithiol, succimer N-Acetylcysteine); 2) role selenium supplementation; 3) how different forms are impacted by use selenium. Unithiol produce increases urinary excretion to a lesser degree blo...

We report the severe mercury poisoning of a 4-year-old child by so far unknown route exposure, namely, skin-to-skin contact. The was admitted to hospital with episodic pain in his extremities, tachycardia, hypertension, increased sweating, behavioral changes and weight loss. Extensive examinations eventually revealed an acute poisoning. initial levels were 19 µg/L urine (reference level 0.4 µg/...

A simplified mass screening method for methylmercury exposure was developed using methylmercury-volatilizing bacteria from Minamata Bay. Some bacteria can transform methylmercury into mercury vapor. Most mercury in the hair is methylmercury, which is readily extracted with HCl solution. Black spots are formed on X-ray film due to the reduction of Ag(+) emulsion with mercury vapor produced by me...

Post Minamata incident there has been awareness about mercury toxicity even among the general public. Previous researches contributed a vast amount of data regarding acute mercury exposure, but gradually information about the low dose [Ninomiya, T., Ohmori, H., Hashimoto, K., Tsuruta, K., Ekino, S., 1995. Expansion of methylmercury poisoning outside minamata: an epidemiological study on chronic...

Minamata Disease was discovered for the first time in the world at Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1956 (Minamata Disease Research Group; 1968, Harada M; 1995), and for the next time at Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, in 1965 (Tsubaki T & Irukayama K; 1977). The both cases were attributed to the methyl mercury that was generated in the process for producing acetaldehyde u...

BACKGROUND Large-scale poisonings caused by methyl mercury (MeHg) have occurred in Japan (Minamata in the 1950s and Niigata in the 1960s) and Iraq (in the 1970s). The current WHO neurological risk standard for adult exposure (hair level: 50 μg/g) was based partly on evidence from Niigata which did not consider any cases who were diagnosed later and/or exposed to low level of MeHg (hair mercury ...