Mercury, Mercury Alloys, and Mercury Compounds

Simon, M. Milagros Bonilla; Jönk, Peter; Wühl-Couturier, Gabriele; Halbach, Stefan

doi:10.1002/14356007.a16_269

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Lacking these data, we use simple models and laboratory experiments to provide an order-of-magnitude estimate of exposures that could result from cultural uses of mercury. Although use of both elemental mercury and mercuric oxide has been reported, the calculations are for elemental mercury because it is significantly more volatile than mercuric oxide (34). A simple box model can provide an estimate of potential mercury vapor concentrations: [1] where V is the room volume (cubic meters), C the concentration of mercury (micrograms per cubic meter), S the rate of mercury evaporation (micrograms per hour), and Q the air flow rate from the room (cubic meters per hour; the room volume times the number of air changes per hour).…”

Section: Exposure Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Elemental Mercury Vapor Exposure from Cultural and Religious Practices

Riley¹,

Newby²,

Leal-Almeraz³

et al. 2001

Environmental Health Perspectives

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Section: Exposure Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Elemental Mercury Vapor Exposure from Cultural and Religious Practices

Riley¹,

Newby²,

Leal-Almeraz³

et al. 2001

Environmental Health Perspectives

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Exposure Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing elemental mercury vapor exposure from cultural and religious practices.

Riley

Newby

Leal-Almeraz

et al. 2001

Environ Health Perspect

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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.

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Mercury, Mercury Alloys, and Mercury Compounds

Cited by 2 publications

References 97 publications

Assessing Elemental Mercury Vapor Exposure from Cultural and Religious Practices

Assessing Elemental Mercury Vapor Exposure from Cultural and Religious Practices

Assessing elemental mercury vapor exposure from cultural and religious practices.

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