![]() ![]() The most common presenting complaint was headache. Physical and neurological examinations were normal in 19 (65.5%) children. The median duration of exposure was 58 (range, 15–120) minutes. Twenty-nine children with mercury poisoning were admitted to the hospital. The patients were treated with 2,3-dimercaptopropane sulfonic acid or D-penicillamine. Patients with a blood mercury level exceeding 10 μg/L or a urine mercury level exceeding 15 μg/L were considered to have mercury poisoning. Data were obtained for 29 pediatric cases exposed to elemental mercury in a high school chemistry laboratory in Turkey. This study presents the features of mercury poisoning in a group of pediatric cases. It can be very dangerous to all living organisms, especially children. Mercury can be found in environmental naturally find but some dangers sources give rise to contaminations. Thereby, inhalation can cause acute or chronic poisoning. It is readily vaporized and inhaled at room temperature. The results of this study provide scientific evidence of great value to expand future research on the complex relationship of human beings with mercury, one of the most peculiar mineral substances on our planet, and to learn about its uses and their consequences for human health.Elemental mercury is a toxic liquid element that is used widely in the home, medicine, agriculture, and industry. In fact, the levels detected in some subjects are so high that the study authors do not rule out that cinnabar powder was deliberately consumed, by inhalation of vapors, or even ingestion, for the ritual, symbolic and esoteric value that was attributed to it. ![]() Taking into account that the WHO currently considers that the normal level of mercury in hair should not be higher than 1 or 2 ppm, the data obtained reveal a high level of intoxication that must have severely affected the health of many of those people. Levels of up to 400 parts per million (ppm) have been recorded in the bones of some of these individuals. As a result, many people must have accidentally inhaled or consumed it, leading to unsuspected accumulations of mercury in their bodies. In tombs from this period discovered in southern Portugal and Andalusia, cinnabar powder (often turned into a pigment) was used to paint megalithic chambers, decorate figurines or stelae, and to spread it over the dead. By the beginning of the Copper Age, around 5000 years ago, cinnabar became a product of great social value, with a character that was both sacred, esoteric and sumptuous. The exploitation of the Almadén cinnabar began in the Neolithic, 7000 years ago. It so happens that the largest cinnabar mine in the world, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is located in Almadén, in central Spain). Historically, this substance has been used to produce pigments in paint, being famous already in Antiquity ("Pompeian red") or in modern art (known as "vermilion"). Cinnabar (HgS) is a mercury sulfide mineral that, when pulverized, turns into a powder of a striking and brilliant red color. In this period, the exploitation and use of cinnabar increased considerably for social and cultural reasons. The results reveal that the highest levels of mercury exposure occurred at the beginning of the Copper Age, between 29 BC. In this article, entitled “The use and abuse of cinnabar in Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia”, a team of 14 specialists in biology, chemistry, physical anthropology and archaeology have presented the results of the largest study ever carried out on the presence of mercury in human bone, with a sample of a total of 370 individuals from 50 tombs located in 23 archaeological sites in Spain and Portugal dating from Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age and Antiquity, thus encompassing 5000 years of human history. A recent paper published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and in which researchers from the University of Seville participate, explores the complex relationship between humans and mercury over time.
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