Individual mercury exposure of chloralkali workers and its relation to blood and urinary mercury levels.

Lindstedt, Gösta; Gottberg, Ingemar; Holmgren, Berit; Jonsson, Torbjörn; Karlsson, Gunnar

doi:10.5271/sjweh.2665

Cited by 38 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(13 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For studies in which the data were scanned, the previously reported slopes were well within the 95% confidence interval of that calculated from the digitized data. For the studies that did not require digitizing, we obtained virtually the same result (i.e., correlation coefficient, slope, and intercept) for Mattiussi et al (1982), but not for the two Lindstedt et al (1979) studies. Because Lindstedt et al (1979) reported the raw data, this difference is not due to inaccuracies in imaging the data but may be due to differences in statistical methods or reporting errors.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 68%

“…Seven studies had data in the range of 3-25 µg/m 3 , for a total of 52 data points in this range (Table 3). Mattiussi et al (1982), Muller et al (1980), and the two studies by Lindstedt et al (1979) reported raw numerical data for mercury in air and urine. Data from the other studies in the combined analysis were reported in graphical form only.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A total of 10 studies meeting the above criteria were combined for analysis of air and urine mercury levels ( Table 2). Data from the two Lindstedt et al (1979) studies were analyzed as separate studies because of differences in air concentrations and sample collection methodology. All 10 studies were of mercury-exposed workers in facilities such as chloralkali and thermometer-manufacturing plants.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Less understood is whether exposures at much lower airborne mercury levels (i.e., 1-10 µg/m 3 ) can be detected in urine above background levels. In fact, some reports note a lack of correlation between air and urine mercury levels at airborne concentrations < 50 µg/m 3 (ATSDR 1999;Lindstedt et al 1979). The relationship between urine and air mercury at low levels has been difficult to assess in most studies because of inadequate data in this range of air concentrations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Evaluation of mercury in urine as an indicator of exposure to low levels of mercury vapor.

Tsuji

Williams

Edwards

et al. 2003

Environ Health Perspect

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We conducted a pooled analysis to investigate the relationship between exposure to elemental mercury in air and resulting urinary mercury levels, specifically at lower air levels relevant for environmental exposures and public health goals (i.e., < 50 microg/m3 down to 1.0 microg/m3). Ten studies reporting paired air and urine mercury data (149 samples total) met criteria for data quality and sufficiency. The log-transformed data set showed a strong correlation between mercury in air and in urine (r = 0.774), although the relationship was best fit by a series of parallel lines with different intercepts for each study R2 = 0.807). Predicted ratios of air to urine mercury levels at 50 microg/m3 air concentration ranged from 1:1 to 1:3, based on the regression line for the studies. Toward the lower end of the data set (i.e., 10 microg/m3), predicted urinary mercury levels encompassed two distinct ranges: values on the order of 20 microg/L and 30-60 microg/L. Extrapolation to 1 microg/m3 resulted in predicted urinary levels of 4-5 and 6-13 microg/L. Higher predicted levels were associated with use of static area air samplers by some studies rather than more accurate personal air samplers. Urinary mercury predictions based primarily on personal air samplers at 1 and 10 microg/m3 are consistent with reported mean (4 microg/L) and upper-bound (20 microg/L) background levels, respectively. Thus, although mercury levels in air and urine are correlated below 50 microg/m3, the impact of airborne mercury levels below 10 microg/m3 is likely to be indistinguishable from background urinary mercury levels.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Evaluation of mercury in urine as an indicator of exposure to low levels of mercury vapor.

Tsuji

Williams

Edwards

et al. 2003

Environ Health Perspect

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To our knowledge, this is the highest Hg concentration in urine ever reported, being about 90-fold higher than the health-based occupational exposure limit level (50 μg/g creatinine) set by WHO (6). From the previous studies, the ratio between Hg concentration in urine (μg/L or μg/g creatinine) and Hg concentration in air (μg/m 3 ) was 1-3 (11,(18)(19)(20)(21). From this ratio, the Hg level in the air of the working environment was estimated to range from about 3 hundreds to 1 thousands μg/m 3 in average.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

High exposure of Chinese mercury mine workers to elemental mercury vapor and increased methylmercury levels in their hair

Sakamoto

Feng

et al. 2007

Environ Health Prev Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the level of exposure of mercury (Hg) miners and smelter workers to elemental mercury (Hg 0 ) vapor in China, who work in Hg mines without using protective equipment against Hg 0 vapor. In addition, the level of methylmercury (MeHg) intake by the workers was estimated from the MeHg concentration in their hair.Methods: Urinary total mercury (THg) and hair THg and MeHg concentrations were measured in 26 Hg miners and smelter workers (i.e., exposed group), and 48 unexposed people (unexposed group).Results: The exposed group showed high geometric mean THg concentrations in urine (258 ng/ml, 226 μg/g creatinine) and hair (20.0 μg/g). The urinary THg concentration of the smelter workers in particular was extremely high (338 μg/g creatinine in urine). The highest urine THg concentration reached 4577 μg/g creatinine. THg concentrations in urine and hair showed a significant correlation in the exposed group (r=0.62), indicating the adhesion of Hg 0 vapor to hair. However, no such significant correlation was found in the unexposed group. Hair MeHg concentration in the exposed group (1.97 μg/g) was about threefold higher than that in the unexposed group (0.60 μg/g).Conclusions: This study shows that smelter workers in a Chinese Hg mine are exposed to extremely high levels of Hg 0 vapor, and that Hg miners are exposed to higher levels of MeHg than the unexposed subjects. Further study is needed to determine the cause of the higher hair MeHg concentration in the exposed group.

show abstract

Statistical study of the correlation between mercury exposure (TWA) and urinary mercury concentrations in chloralkali workers

Mattiussi¹,

Armeli²,

Bareggi³

1982

American J Industrial Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present report completes a previous study made on three chloralkali plants that was presented at the 8th International Conference on Occupational Health in the Chemical Industry, Tokyo, 1980, with the final results from five plants located in various regions of Italy. A total of 14,339 measurements of mercury in air and 8,042 determinations of mercury in urine were considered. The total number of workers involved was 275. On the basis of these data, we believe it can be concluded that, as previously reported, a correlation exists between mercury concentrations in the air and in the urine of exposed workers. This correlation is such that for exposures in the order of the present TLV (0.05 mg/m3), the value of the Z ratio (ratio between mean urinary mercury values expressed in mg/1 and mean airborne mercury concentrations expressed in mg/m3) is 1.3, while the urinary mercury values vary from 0.051 mg/1 to 0.078 mg/1 with a mean value of 0.065 mg/1.

show abstract

Individual mercury exposure of chloralkali workers and its relation to blood and urinary mercury levels.

Cited by 38 publications

References 9 publications

Evaluation of mercury in urine as an indicator of exposure to low levels of mercury vapor.

Evaluation of mercury in urine as an indicator of exposure to low levels of mercury vapor.

High exposure of Chinese mercury mine workers to elemental mercury vapor and increased methylmercury levels in their hair

Statistical study of the correlation between mercury exposure (TWA) and urinary mercury concentrations in chloralkali workers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About