Identifying occupational and nonoccupational exposure to mercury in dental personnel

The objective of this study was to investigate the occupational and nonoccupational exposure to mercury (Hg) vapor in dental personnel by examining the relationships between blood mercury, urine mercury, and their ratio with air mercury. The method was performed on 50 occupational exposed and 50 unexposed controls (25 men and 25 women). The mercury concentrations in air and human biological samples were determined based on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) method and standard method (SM) by a new mode of liquid-phase microextraction, respectively. The mean mercury concentrations in urine (mg Hg-0/g creatinine) and blood were significantly higher than control group, respectively (19.41 +/- 5.18 vs 2.15 +/- 0.07 mg/g and 16.40 +/- 4.97 vs 2.50 +/- 0.02 mg/L) (p < .001). The relationships between mercury concentration in blood/urine ratio (r = .380) with dental office air are new indicators for assessing occupational exposure in dental personnel.