Cargando…
Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study
BACKGROUND: Dental amalgam is a source of elemental and inorganic mercury. The safety of dental amalgam in individuals remains a controversial issue. Urinary mercury concentrations are used to assess chronic exposure to elemental mercury. At present, there are no indications of mercury-associated ad...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3847647/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24015978 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-13-44 |
_version_ | 1782293636920115200 |
---|---|
author | Nicolae, Alexandra Ames, Harry Quiñonez, Carlos |
author_facet | Nicolae, Alexandra Ames, Harry Quiñonez, Carlos |
author_sort | Nicolae, Alexandra |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Dental amalgam is a source of elemental and inorganic mercury. The safety of dental amalgam in individuals remains a controversial issue. Urinary mercury concentrations are used to assess chronic exposure to elemental mercury. At present, there are no indications of mercury-associated adverse effects at levels below 5 μg Hg/g creatinine (Cr) or 7 μg Hg/L (urine). The purpose of the present study is to determine the overall urinary mercury level in the Canadian general population in relation to the number of dental amalgam surfaces. METHODS: Data come from the 2007/09 Canadian Health Measures Survey, which measured urinary mercury concentrations in a nationally representative sample of 5,418 Canadians aged 6–79 years. Urinary mercury concentrations were stratified by sex, age, and number of dental amalgam surfaces. RESULTS: The overall mean urinary mercury concentration varied between 0.12 μg Hg/L and 0.31 μg Hg/L or 0.13 μg Hg/g Cr and 0.40 μg Hg/g Cr. In general, females showed slightly higher mean urinary mercury levels than men. The overall 95(th) percentile was 2.95 μg Hg/L, the 99(th) percentile was 7.34E μg Hg/L, and the 99.9(th) percentile was 17.45 μg Hg/L. Expressed as μg Hg/g Cr, the overall 95(th) percentile was 2.57 μg Hg/g Cr, the 99(th) percentile was 5.65 μg Hg/g Cr, and the 99.9(th) percentiles was 12.14 μg Hg/g Cr. Overall, 98.2% of participants had urinary mercury levels below 7 μg Hg/L and 97.7% had urinary mercury levels below 5 μg Hg/g Cr. All data are estimates for the Canadian population. The estimates followed by the letter “E” should be interpreted with caution due to high sampling variability (coefficient of variation 16.6%-33.3%). CONCLUSIONS: The mean urinary mercury concentrations in the general Canadian population are significantly lower than the values considered to pose any risks for health. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3847647 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-38476472013-12-04 Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study Nicolae, Alexandra Ames, Harry Quiñonez, Carlos BMC Oral Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Dental amalgam is a source of elemental and inorganic mercury. The safety of dental amalgam in individuals remains a controversial issue. Urinary mercury concentrations are used to assess chronic exposure to elemental mercury. At present, there are no indications of mercury-associated adverse effects at levels below 5 μg Hg/g creatinine (Cr) or 7 μg Hg/L (urine). The purpose of the present study is to determine the overall urinary mercury level in the Canadian general population in relation to the number of dental amalgam surfaces. METHODS: Data come from the 2007/09 Canadian Health Measures Survey, which measured urinary mercury concentrations in a nationally representative sample of 5,418 Canadians aged 6–79 years. Urinary mercury concentrations were stratified by sex, age, and number of dental amalgam surfaces. RESULTS: The overall mean urinary mercury concentration varied between 0.12 μg Hg/L and 0.31 μg Hg/L or 0.13 μg Hg/g Cr and 0.40 μg Hg/g Cr. In general, females showed slightly higher mean urinary mercury levels than men. The overall 95(th) percentile was 2.95 μg Hg/L, the 99(th) percentile was 7.34E μg Hg/L, and the 99.9(th) percentile was 17.45 μg Hg/L. Expressed as μg Hg/g Cr, the overall 95(th) percentile was 2.57 μg Hg/g Cr, the 99(th) percentile was 5.65 μg Hg/g Cr, and the 99.9(th) percentiles was 12.14 μg Hg/g Cr. Overall, 98.2% of participants had urinary mercury levels below 7 μg Hg/L and 97.7% had urinary mercury levels below 5 μg Hg/g Cr. All data are estimates for the Canadian population. The estimates followed by the letter “E” should be interpreted with caution due to high sampling variability (coefficient of variation 16.6%-33.3%). CONCLUSIONS: The mean urinary mercury concentrations in the general Canadian population are significantly lower than the values considered to pose any risks for health. BioMed Central 2013-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3847647/ /pubmed/24015978 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-13-44 Text en Copyright © 2013 Nicolae et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Nicolae, Alexandra Ames, Harry Quiñonez, Carlos Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
title | Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
title_full | Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
title_fullStr | Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
title_full_unstemmed | Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
title_short | Dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
title_sort | dental amalgam and urinary mercury concentrations: a descriptive study |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3847647/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24015978 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-13-44 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT nicolaealexandra dentalamalgamandurinarymercuryconcentrationsadescriptivestudy AT amesharry dentalamalgamandurinarymercuryconcentrationsadescriptivestudy AT quinonezcarlos dentalamalgamandurinarymercuryconcentrationsadescriptivestudy |