Mercury toxicology

Organoarsenic compounds have been of importance in human toxicology but have not as yet received much attention in regard to environmental effects. Like methyl mercury compounds, they are both synthesized in the environment from inorganic forms and released into the environment as a consequence of human activity (Environmental Health Criteria 18). They can cause neurotoxicity. 

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Hontela, A., Rasmussen, J.B., and Andet, C. et al. (1992). Impaired cortisol stress response in fish from environments polluted by PAHs, PCBs, and Mercury. A rchives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 22, 278-283. 

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The authors and editors of this book wish to acknowledge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Electric Power Research Institute, who sponsored a Society of Enviromnental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) workshop in September 2003 in Pensacola, Florida. More than 30 international experts gathered to discuss and propose a framework for a national mercury monitoring program to evaluate the effectiveness of mercury emissions controls on mercury concentrations in the enviromnent. This book and a companion journal publication (Mason et al. 2005) are the products of the workshop and subsequent efforts. 

Ishihara, N. and Urushiyana, K., Longitudinal study of workers exposed to mercury vapor at low concentration Time course of inorganic and organic mercury concentration in urine, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 155, 161-168, 1994. 

Tin is comparable in its toxicological behavior to lead and mercury. Bivalent tin compounds generally are more toxic than the tetravalent compounds. Furthermore, organic tin compounds are more toxic than inorganic ones and the trialkyl analogs (triethyltin, trimethyltin, tributyltin) are the most toxic. As the number of carbon atoms attached to tin increases, the toxicity of the organic tin compounds rapidly declines9,77. 

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Magos, L. and M. Webb. 1979. Synergism and antagonism in the toxicology of mercury. Pages 581-599 in J.O. Nriagu (ed.). The Biogeochemistry of Mercury in the Environment. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, NY. 

U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS). 1994. Toxicological profile for mercury (update). U.S. PHS,Agen. Toxic Substances Dis. Registry, Atlanta, GA. TP-93/10. 366 pp. 

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