RESUMEN
Due to its ability to avidly accumulate methyl mercury from blood, scalp hair has been widely used as a biological monitor for human exposure. The question arises that hair may also be an important route of elimination of methyl mercury from the body. Taking original publications and reviews on the physiology of hair (including growth by weigh and density) and on the deposition parameters for methyl mercury in the body (including the hair to blood concentration ratio of methyl mercury), one can calculate the rate of elimination of methyl mercury in hair. The result indicates that hair accounts for only a small fraction, less than 10%, of the total elimination of methyl mercury from the body. This relationship is expected to be maintained at every level when the dominant form of mercury is methyl. Other species of mercury I eliminated by hair even at a lower rate.
Asunto(s)
Cabello/química , Cabello/metabolismo , Compuestos de Metilmercurio/farmacocinética , Carga Corporal (Radioterapia) , Peso Corporal/efectos de los fármacos , Etnicidad , Heces/química , Cabello/crecimiento & desarrollo , HumanosRESUMEN
This review covers the toxicology of mercury and its compounds. Special attention is paid to those forms of mercury of current public health concern. Human exposure to the vapor of metallic mercury dates back to antiquity but continues today in occupational settings and from dental amalgam. Health risks from methylmercury in edible tissues of fish have been the subject of several large epidemiological investigations and continue to be the subject of intense debate. Ethylmercury in the form of a preservative, thimerosal, added to certain vaccines, is the most recent form of mercury that has become a public health concern. The review leads to general discussion of evolutionary aspects of mercury, protective and toxic mechanisms, and ends on a note that mercury is still an "element of mystery."
Asunto(s)
Compuestos de Mercurio/envenenamiento , Intoxicación por Mercurio/prevención & control , Mercurio/metabolismo , Animales , Humanos , Mercurio/sangre , Mercurio/química , Compuestos de Mercurio/química , Compuestos de Mercurio/metabolismo , Intoxicación por Mercurio/diagnóstico , Intoxicación por Mercurio/etiología , Modelos Biológicos , Nivel sin Efectos Adversos Observados , Conservadores Farmacéuticos/química , Timerosal/químicaRESUMEN
Mercury is ubiquitous in the environment and therefore every human being, irrespective of age and location, is exposed to one form of mercury or another. The major source of environmental mercury is natural degassing of the earth's crust, but industrial activities can raise exposure to toxic levels directly or through the use or misuse of the liquid metals or synthesized mercurial compounds. The aim of this review is to survey differences in human exposure and in the toxicology of different forms of mercury. It covers not only symptoms and signs observed in poisoned individuals by a clinician but also subclinical effects in population studies, the final evaluation of which is the domain of statisticians.
