Assessing elemental mercury vapor exposure from cultural and religious practices.
Environ Health Perspect
; 109(8): 779-84, 2001 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-11564612
ABSTRACT
Use of elemental mercury in certain cultural and religious practices can cause high exposures to mercury vapor. Uses include sprinkling mercury on the floor of a home or car, burning it in a candle, and mixing it with perfume. Some uses can produce indoor air mercury concentrations one or two orders of magnitude above occupational exposure limits. Exposures resulting from other uses, such as infrequent use of a small bead of mercury, could be well below currently recognized risk levels. Metallic mercury is available at almost all of the 15 botanicas visited in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but botanica personnel often deny having mercury for sale when approached by outsiders to these religious and cultural traditions. Actions by public health authorities have driven the mercury trade underground in some locations. Interviews indicate that mercury users are aware that mercury is hazardous, but are not aware of the inhalation exposure risk. We argue against a crackdown by health authorities because it could drive the practices further underground, because high-risk practices may be rare, and because uninformed government intervention could have unfortunate political and civic side effects for some Caribbean and Latin American immigrant groups. We recommend an outreach and education program involving religious and community leaders, botanica personnel, and other mercury users.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Contexto em Saúde:
2_ODS3
Problema de saúde:
2_quimicos_contaminacion
Assunto principal:
Religião
/
Cultura
/
Exposição Ambiental
/
Mercúrio
/
Intoxicação por Mercúrio
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspecto:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limite:
Adult
/
Child
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Environ Health Perspect
Ano de publicação:
2001
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos