Mercury in The Blood

Agul

Pernah dengar tak tentang kes tahap merkuri dalam darah?

Untuk penghidap ini, apa yang boleh kita buat selain rawatandoktor dan cuci darah?

Terima kasih.

dora_sue

macam mana bleh jadi gitu ek?nak tahu gak..

amazed

aku harap artikel ni dapat tolong ko jugak....



THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF MERCURY

TYPES OF MERCURY

There are three important types of mercury:

• The pure element,
• Inorganic compounds (such as mercuric chloride) and
• Organic mercury compounds (such as phenyl mercuric propionate).

Each type poses a different health hazard.

Elemental mercury is a liquid and gives off mercury vapor at room temperature. This vapor can be inhaled into the lungs and passed into the blood stream. Elemental mercury can also pass through the skin and into the blood stream. If swallowed, however, this form of mercury is not absorbed out of the stomach, and usually passes out of the body without harm.

Inorganic mercury compounds can also be inhaled and absorbed through the lungs, and may pass through the skin. But the compounds can also be absorbed through the stomach if swallowed. Many inorganic mercury compounds are irritating or corrosive to the skin, eyes and mucus membranes as well.
Organic mercury compounds can enter the body readily through all three routes-lungs, skin and stomach.

ACUTE HEALTH EFFECTS

Very high exposures to mercury vapor in the air can cause acute poisoning. Symptoms usually begin with cough, chest tightness, trouble breathing and upset stomach. This may go on to pneumonia, which can be fatal.
If the inorganic mercury compounds are swallowed, nausea, vomiting diarrhea and severe kidney damage can occur.

CHRONIC HEALTH EFFECTS

Exposure to any form of mercury on a repeated basis, or even from a single, very high exposure can lead to the disease of chronic mercury poisoning. There are three main symptoms:

• Gum problems. The gums become soft and spongy, the teeth get loose, sores may develop, and there may be increased saliva.
• Mood and mental changes. People with chronic mercury poisoning often have wide swings of mood, becoming irritable, frightened, depressed or excited very quickly for no apparent reason. Such people may become extremely upset at any criticism, lose all self-confidence, and become apathetic. Hallucinations, memory loss and inability to concentrate can occur.
• Nervous system. The earliest and most frequent symptom is a fine tremor (shaking) of the hand. A tremor may also occur in the tongue and eyelids. Eventually this can progress to trouble balancing and walking.

OTHER HEALTH EFFECTS

There are a number of other symptoms that may be caused by exposure to mercury and mercury-containing compounds.

• A skin allergy may develop. If this happens, repeated exposure causes rash and itching.
• Exposure to mercury vapor can cause the lens of the eye to discolor.
• Some of the inorganic mercury compounds can cause burns or severe irritation of the skin and eyes on contact.

EFFECTS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM

Some organic mercury compounds (methylmercury) are known to cause birth defects in children born of exposed mothers. It is not known whether inorganic compounds or elemental mercury have this effect.

TESTS FOR MERCURY EXPOSURE

There are two tests available to measure mercury in the body:

The Mercury Blood Test measures exposure to all three types of mercury, but because mercury remains in the bloodstream for only a few days after exposure, the test must be done soon after exposure. Most non-exposed people have mercury levels of 0 to 2 (all blood measurements are in micrograms of mercury per deciliter of blood, or ug/dl). Levels above 2.8 ug/dl are required to be reported to the Health Department. This test can be influenced by eating fish, because fish (particularly certain deep sea fish) may contain mercury.

The Urine Mercury Test only measures exposure to elemental and inorganic mercury. Organic mercury is not passed out the body in the urine and thus cannot be measured this way. A person with no exposure to mercury would probably have a urine mercury level of 0 to 20 ug/L. The Health Department requires reporting of levels above 20.

[ Last edited by  amazed at 11-10-2008 07:03 PM ]

amazed

Using more sensitive medical tests

Several studies have shown that some special tests may be useful in detecting early signs of mercury toxicity.
Neurobehavioral tests, designed to detect early changes in concentration, response time, memory, and hand-eye coordination, can be useful on both an individual and a group basis in detecting early nervous system effects of mercury exposure.

Early kidney damage may be detected by looking for the presence of low molecular weight proteins in the urine. The presence of these proteins in the urine indicates that kidney damage has occurred long before a routine urinalysis indicates an abnormality. Beta2 microglobulin and N-acetyl-B-D glucosaminidase (NAG) are two of the proteins which can be measured in the urine. The tests are useful on both an individual and group basis.

These special tests should be arranged and interpreted by a trained occupational physician or other physician with special expertise in these areas.

[size=+1]BIOLOGIC MONITORING

Biologic monitoring is the measurement of an chemical agents in the blood, urine, or other body tissue of exposed individuals to determine how much of the chemical has been absorbed into the body. It serves as a back-up to environmental exposure measurements, since air measurements cannot assess skin exposure or the effects of protective equipment and work practices. Since it measures the amount of an agent actually absorbed into the body, it is usually a better estimate of risk for adverse health effect than air monitoring.

There is no ideal biologic monitor for evaluating the risks of mercury intoxication from metallic or inorganic mercury. Mercury can be measured in both blood and urine. Individual levels may vary greatly from day to day and even within a given day. While proper interpretation of the results can be difficult, the measurements can nevertheless provide information on potential overexposure.

Measurements should be carried out regularly (several times per year) in chronically exposed workers, and individual as well as group results should be evaluated. Baseline levels should be obtained before exposure begins for comparison purposes.


Mercury in Urine

Measurement of mercury in urine is the recommended biologic monitor for workers exposed to metallic and inorganic mercury. Ideally, the collection should be over 24-hours, but this is seldom feasible. Spot urine samples may also be taken, but care must be taken to always collect them at the same time of day near the end of the work week after several months of steady exposure. Overnight samples may also be collected; this collection extends from the time the employee goes to bed through the first urination of the morning.

Samples must be collected in containers provided by the laboratory, since a preservative must be added. At least 25 cc of urine must be collected. Great care must be taken to prevent contamination of the sample containers or the urine with mercury from the skin or workplace air.

When results are interpreted, the urine values should be corrected for grams of creatinine in the sample, and should be expressed as ug Hg/gram creatinine. In persons not occupationally exposed to mercury, urine levels rarely exceed 5 ug/g creatinine.

While many laboratories indicate that only levels above 150 ug/L should be considered toxic, there is strong evidence that early signs of mercury intoxication can be seen in workers excreting more than 50 ug Hg/L of urine (standardized for a urinary creatinine of 1 gram/L). This value of 50 ug/g creatinine is proposed by many experts as a biological threshold limit value for chronic exposure to mercury vapor, and in 1980 this was endorsed by a World Health Organization study group.
Exposed individuals with levels above 50 ug/g creatinine should be placed in a non-exposed job until the reason for their overexposure has been identified and corrected and their urine levels have fallen below the biologic threshold limit value.

Mercury in blood

The concentration of mercury in blood reflects exposure to organic mercury as well as metallic and inorganic mercury; thus it can be influenced by the consumption of fish containing methylmercury.

Samples should always be taken at the same time of day near the end of the work week after several months of steady exposure. The blood should be collected in mercury-free heparinized tubes after careful skin cleansing.

In unexposed individuals, the amount of mercury in blood is usually less than 2 ug/100 ml. According to some experts, an average airborne concentration of 50 ug/m3 corresponds to a mercury concentration in blood of about 3-3.5 mg/100 ml. Early effects of mercury toxicity have been found when the blood concentration exceeds 3 ug/100 ml. Any worker exceeding this level should be placed in a non-exposed job until dietary and workplace exposures have been evaluated and blood levels have returned to baseline.

Removing Employees from Exposure

An individual who must be removed from mercury exposure because of elevated blood or urine mercury levels or physical examination results suggesting early mercury intoxication should be given alternative work with no exposure. His or her wages, benefits and seniority should be maintained. No employee should be terminated or otherwise punished because of overexposure to mercury.

In the event that no job without mercury exposure is available, the employee may continue to work using a supplied air respirator, provided that biological monitoring results and/or symptoms display a satisfactory decline over time.

Agul

terima kasih amazed...

kepada sesiapa lagi yang ada maklumat pasal ni, saya mintak tolong sebab saya perlukan information lagi...

saya pun tak faham apa penyakit ni sebenarnya...

azz_azza

keracunan ke?

die keje kat kilang2 ape ke?

penah terpapar ke?

azz_azza

azz rasa die lebih kepada keracunan gk...

sebab minimata diesease kan, japansese sakit ni becoz of dari hasil kumbahan kilang merkuri yg dibuang kelaut so algae n paknkton makan, and ikan makan plankton n manusia makan ikan...
]
so manusia pon terkena...

Agul

Originally posted by azz_azza at 11-10-2008 10:36 PM
azz rasa die lebih kepada keracunan gk...

sebab minimata diesease kan, japansese sakit ni becoz of dari hasil kumbahan kilang merkuri yg dibuang kelaut so algae n paknkton makan, and ikan maka ...

macam mana boleh jadi kronik azz? keracunan sepatutnya acute kan?

abg tak tau sgt detail, kena cari lagi...

hypnose_s

jadi kronik sebab dia exposed to the mercury in low doses...
sikit2 lama2 benda tu accumulate dlm badan...
so,xdela effect dia cam terkejut gitu...

kalau acute,high level of mercury in blood within a short time...

Agul

oh macam tu ye...

ada tak supplement ke petua yang boleh memmbntu?

Agul

chelanteraphy?

chelineterapahy?

ini boleh membantu ke?

amazed

Originally posted by Agul at 14-11-2008 04:17 PM
chelanteraphy?

chelineterapahy?

ini boleh membantu ke?

google  chelation    agul...

dapat banyak info tentang tu.... aku deal ngan first hand pasal chelation ni - a popular treatment for metal toxication kat states and north america

Agul

ok amazed, aku try cari info... thanks buddy...

mbhcsf

i think we need to know more about this case  punya history

Macam ni , if i were the doctor or the toxicologist,

a) kita nak tahu - the occupational history - sejarah pekerjaan- adakah kawan anda bekerja di kilang yg berasaskan oil and gas?

b) kilang yg process toxic etc etc

i think you would probably mean "CHELATING AGENT"

alaaa...ini sapa ambil or tengah buat FIRM / attachment kat haematology ward  tahulah nion - organic seperti ferum kan dalm badan sebab ferum tak dapat dibuang / excreted directly  off the body  you know so they need to be 'chelated' - kat sini  maksudnya kena  gabungkan atau bind that ferum ...i dah lupa......

i think macam tu kot ( I THINK - but it may not be true) prinsipnya .....you could ask his / her CONSULTANT HAEMATOLOGIST  OR TOXICOLOGIST

kalau terlebih element n

Agul

ntahla... memang kalau di ikutkan takde exposure secara langsung... doktor pun setakat ni tak boleh kenalapasti apa sebenarnya...

misteri lagi...

mbhcsf

has it been a recent occurence or  another' RECURRENCE'
anyone in the family has it ?



anyone like his friends being affected by it ?


alamak dah jadi Sherlock Holmes ni


sebab i fear kalau ini source dari sumber yg sama so kalau dalam working environment ni semua pekerja terlibat  kalau exposure tu  u know coming from the same source
.
kalau genetik disorder tu ...ya ALALH rare though ada remote remote like dy/dx  menuju ke 0

hmmmm.......

mbhcsf

okay siasat the source it came come from

a) body - genetic (RAREST)
b) ingestion  of contaminated seafood   or etc etc
c) toxin 0 dia mmg makn racun
d) working ambience

Agul

tak tau lagi da, ni pun baru je korek rahsia dari dia... tengok la kalau dapat info lagi...

tapi sebnarnya ni bukan kes baru.. lama dah...

mbhcsf

e) via inhalation
f) sumber air kat rumah - air sungai tepi kilang? or what ?
so u might think Agul in the line of possible ROUTE of transmission ? EXPOSURE lah

mbhcsf

so dig up more the deeper the better though this may sound a bit queer

okay EVERY SILENT READERS STOP JUDGING

[ Last edited by  mbhcsf at 14-11-2008 11:49 PM ]