Official website of GRiPPA - Research Group for the Prevention of Environmental Disease - edited by Giancarlo Ugazio

Gruppo di Ricerca per la Prevenzione

della Patologia Ambientale

Research Group for the Prevention of Environmental Disease

Italiano

DYNAMICS  OF  ENVIRONMENTAL  DISEASE  THROUGHOUT  MAN'S  LIFESPAN



 

CD-3

EMBRYO TOXICITY OF MERCURY

SPASTICITY IN CHILDREN

(maximum expected lifespan around 10 years)

PRE-NATAL DAMAGE CAUSED BY EXPOSURE OF THE EMBRYO

CONTENT

THE NEUROTOXICITY OF MERCURY AND METHYL-MERCURY

01

THE HUMAN BODY WITH THE MERCURY DISTRIBUTION ZONES

02

NEUROTOXICITY OF MERCURY ON THE FORMED NERVOUS SYSTEM

03

TRANSIT FUNCTION OF THE PLACENTA FOR MERCURY

04

CLINICAL ASPECT OF MERCURY-INDUCED SPASTICITY IN CHILDREN

05

PATHO-ANATOMICAL SUMMARY OF NEUROTOXICITY FROM MERCURY

06

CLINICAL SYNDROME OF MINAMATA DISEASE

 

ORIGINS OF MERCURY AND METHYL-MERCURY

07

 OVERALL REVIEW OF THE SOURCES OF MERCURY (by inhalation or swallowing)

08

BY INHALATION: DUST

09

BY INHALATION: VAPOURS

10

VIA THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM: FOODS: FLESH OF CRUSTACEANS AND FISH,  PORK.

11

SWALLOWING AND/OR INHALATION OF MERCURY FROM DENTAL FILLINGS

12

MERCURY CYCLE IN SEDIMENT AND WATER OF WATER BODIES

13

DISTRIBUTION OF MERCURY AND METHYL-MERCURY IN WATER AND THE  FLESH OF FISH

14

NEUROTOXIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MERCURY AND METHYL-MERCURY

15

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF MINAMATA DISEASE

16

CONCENTRATION OF MERCURY IN RIVER SEDIMENTS AND THE AGRICULTURAL LAND OF THE CECINA VALLEY

17

MAP OF FLORIDA BAY
   

18

CONCENTRATION OF MERCURY IN THE SEDIMENT OF RIVER PO TRIBUTARIES

 

 

EMBRYO  TOXICITY  OF  MERCURY

 
 

LESSONS  FOR  THE  WORLD

 

   after Masazumi HARADA, Minamata disease: methylmercury poisoning in Japan caused by environmental Pollution. Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 25, 1-24, 1995.

Dep. of Epidemiology, Institute of Medical Genetics, Kumamoto University Medical School, Japan.

 

   Page 22. The only way in which the Minamata victims can be fully repaid for their suffering is for others to utilize the lessons learned. The people of Minamata, Niigata, Iraq, New Mexico, and others have all fallen victims to a disease somehow symbolic of modern development. The people of the Amazonia in Brazil now live with the concern that they, too, may soon suffer from contamination effects. Developing countries have a tendency to promote short-term economic development at the expense of future environmental implications. However, these diseases and their grave social consequences can be avoided with the implementation of appropriate control measures. Dissemination of the knowledge that the same problem has already occurred elsewhere from the same basic causes is also of vital importance. In this respect, the exchange of views and experiences between researchers and policy makers from different countries can be a positive step toward avoiding similar catastrophes in the future. As one of the first tragedies of this type, Minamata offers the opportunity for the world to examine, learn, and avoid.

 

 

Summary

  Mercury too, like many other heavy metals,  has chemical and physical  properties that make it a precious element for the multifold uses that modern man can make of it for his technological needs in the industrial age. Likewise, as happens in other cases, humans are exposed to it not only at the workplace, but also in other circumstances, given that very often the waste from industrial processes are dispersed or “destroyed” irrationally and without taking the necessary safety measures.

Furthermore, not only the adult, but the embryo too is prone to the harmful effects of mercury. In both cases the central nervous system is the most sensitive target for the element’s toxic action, although other organs too are open to attack, such as the kidneys, liver and lungs. Moreover, whilst in the adult the symptoms of neurotoxicity, although serious, allow the individual to live a somewhat impaired life, the epidemiological data for spastic babies (caused by mercury poisoning) generally do not have a life expectancy of more than ten years, with a very compromised quality of life.

Given the serious harm that individuals can suffer from mercury, it is useful to mention some of the circumstances in which the element can  attack, primarily to acquire an awareness that will enable us to prevent risks and hence harm.

As always, in the aetiology of environmental disease, rarely is the man in the street, and unfortunately sometimes members of the medical profession too, sufficiently aware of the less clamorous, but nonetheless real risks. The classic example is that of mercury used in dentistry, the unscrupulous dentist might not worry too much for the damage to his patient. or to the environment, but the scientific literature shows that there are risks for the dentist too. This problem, and that of mercury contained in food, even in the most surreptitious forms, are dealt with in depth in this work. Likewise household risks are also illustrated.

Furthermore the CD contains a short review of historical episodes where exposure to mercury has caused serious and/or irreversible harm to population groups. But these are confronted with very recent situations and facts which testify that man, when it comes to environmental risks  is still the eternal child, to quote G. Bizzozero, one of the fathers of  the studies of environmental disease in Italy. (See also CD-8)

 

 

 

 

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