Chronic Effects of Mercury on Organisms:

Introduction


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INTRODUCTION The increase in the number of products connected with the potential development of harmful mercury intoxication reflects an important change in the nature of the characteristics and features of objects previously numbered in the category of being "dangerous because of mercury." Thus, at present, from the point of view of the mercurialism hazard, specific impetus is given to the problem in research institutions and laboratories, among them The Bureau of the Registration of Control and Analytical Devices Used for Calibration and Repair, various laboratories in the technical and medical-biological fields, physics and chemistry departments of various higher educational institutions, and so forth are all concerned. This leads to the conclusion that there have arisen new and especially numerous contingents of persons, differing in their composition (age, state of health), experiencing contact with mercury. They differ in their length of exposure to the air which has been contaminated with mercury vapor. The situation is aggravated when the concentration of mercury vapor in the air of "non-industrial" sites is often found to be rather high in comparison with that of industrial sites. This seems to be a paradox, but is explained by the fact that industrial enterprises, which use mercury, operate under strict sanitary rules, as a consequence of which there are systematic and relatively strict technical, sanitary, hygienic, and organizational measure to prevent the contamination of air with mercury vapor. At the same time, as indicated above, they have taken measures for the prevention of mercury poisoning in laboratories and research institutions, a series of which have fallen under the scrutiny of hygienists. The maximum allowable concentration of mercury in the air at industrial sites (0.01 mg/m3), which is established fifty years ago on the basis of literature data and general conclusions about mercury as a toxic substance (general decree of the Narkomtrud SSSR 232, OST 1342-b), has not received any complex revision until the present time. It agrees with the experimental observations on animals in industrial and clinical situations and the analysis of data from special studies. Among these special studies carried out in recent years in the Soviet Union and abroad (M. M. Ginaveye, 1957, 1958, 1960; E. I. Gol'dman, 1956, 1959; V.N. Kurnosov, 1961, 1962; I.L. Kurinnyy, 1963; L. B. Shrayber, Kh. Z. Lyubetskiy and others, 1957; U. Nothduerft, 1959; T. Niculescu, 1956; L. Goldwater, M. Kleinfeld, A. Berger, 1956) and also subsequent observations from practice have permitted the establishment of the possibility of harmful effects of low concentrations of mercury on the organism during prolonged contact with it, often close to the permissible levels. This has called anew the attention of specialists to the observations of A. Stock (1926) of the concept of the possibility of developing, under the influence of insignificant concentrations of mercury, a symptomatic complex produced by the chronic inhalation of mercury vapor in especially low concentrations" (Ours -- I.T.), N. V. Lazarev (1938) stated that the appearance of mercury in the indicated concentrations " appears to be a harmful minor component of the air of places where it is used constantly, although it is not recorded as yielding real poisoning." In the course of our research we found that our opinion on the importance of the effect of mercury in low concentrations depends, first of all, on a series of conclusions from results of observed changes and damage produced by it.