17 years after metallic mercury exposure.

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Hi

Ive pasted in a rather sad account of a man who was poisoned by

mercury vapour at work. Please realise that he must have been exposed

to a very high concentration of vapour to have had such high levels

in his urine. Much more mercury than most of us will ever be exposed

to from amalgam fillings.

However Its interesting to note that even when his mercury challenge

test, with D Penacillamine indicated that he no longer had high

mercury levels, autopsy tissue examination results 17 years after his

poisoning indicated he still had significant mercury in his body.

Vapour poisoning though is inhaled and is rapidly dispersed throught

the entire body. It is the most dangerous form of poisoning. Vapour

is also corrosive and can go through the skin even if it is not

inhaled.

We really do need new ways of testing for mercury poisoning.

I would say that the most conclusive method would be a biopsy of the

kidney cortex. However this is very expensive and the amount of

kidney tissue required for proper analysis is much more than a usual

biopsy size so not practical.

Demonstration of mercury in the human brain and other organs 17 years

after metallic mercury exposure.

Opitz H, Schweinsberg F, Grossmann T, Wendt-Gallitelli MF, Meyermann

R.

Department of Neuropathology, University of Tubingen, Germany.

A male subject became exposed to metallic mercury vapor at work in

1973. He excreted 1,850 mg Hg/l urine initially. Controls of urine

mercury excretion after D-penicillamine administration led to the

assumption of a total body clearance of mercury latest since 1976.

Subsequently he developed an organic psychosyndrome without

detectable signs of classical mercurialism. He never returned to work

again and died of lung cancer in 1990. In different organs (brain,

kidney, and lung) which were sampled at autopsy elevated levels of

mercury were documented by atomic absorption analysis. Histological

examination of the tissue by the Danscher and Schroder method, which

is specific for mercury, showed a highly positive staining in the

majority of nerve cells and cells of other organs. Ultrastructurally

mercury could be demonstrated by elemental x-ray analysis within

lipofuscin deposits. The lipofuscin content was increased in the

mercury positive nerve cells as demonstrated by a strong positive

autofluorescence.

PMID: 8793247 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]