Mercury exposure of gold mining workers in the northwest of Iran

Mercury exposure is a health concern in the occupational settings like gold mining and chloralkali industries and blood and urine levels of mercury are used as exposure indicators. In this study, blood and urine concentrations of mercury were determined using hydride generation atomic absorption spectrophotometery (HGAAS) in sixteen gold miners with neuropsychiatric symptoms. The patients treated with two chelating agents, dimercaprol and D-penicillamine The mean serum mercury levels before and after chelation therapy were 208.14 mu g/L-1 and 10.50 mu g/L-1, respectively. The mean urinary mercury levels before and after chelation therapy were 134.70 mu g/L-1 and 17.23 mu g/L-1, respectively. The results of this study showed that there are significant differences between concentration of blood and urine mercury before and after intervention (p<0.005). There were no significant differences between in the biochemistry parameters of patients before and after treatment. This study indicated that the gold miners in the northwest of Iran had been exposed to high levels of mercury vapors [Hg-(0)].