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Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel)
Inorganic mercury, in the form of mercurous chloride, or calomel, is intentionally added to some cosmetic products sold through informal channels in Mexico and the US for skin lightening and acne treatment. These products have led to multiple cases of mercury poisoning but few investigations have ad...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586653/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26364641 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120910943 |
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author | Copan, Lori Fowles, Jeff Barreau, Tracy McGee, Nancy |
author_facet | Copan, Lori Fowles, Jeff Barreau, Tracy McGee, Nancy |
author_sort | Copan, Lori |
collection | PubMed |
description | Inorganic mercury, in the form of mercurous chloride, or calomel, is intentionally added to some cosmetic products sold through informal channels in Mexico and the US for skin lightening and acne treatment. These products have led to multiple cases of mercury poisoning but few investigations have addressed the contamination of cream users’ homes. We report on several cases of mercury poisoning among three Mexican-American families in California from use of mercury-containing skin creams. Each case resulted in widespread household contamination and secondary contamination of family members. Urine mercury levels in cream users ranged from 37 to 482 µg/g creatinine and in non-users from non-detectable to 107 µg/g creatinine. Air concentrations of up to 8 µg/m(3) of mercury within homes exceeded the USEPA/ATSDR health-based guidance and action level of <1.0 μg/m(3). Mercury contamination of cream users’ homes presented a multi-pathway exposure environment to residents. Homes required extensive decontamination, including disposal of most household items, to achieve acceptable air levels. The acceptable air levels used were not designed to consider multi-pathway exposure scenarios. These findings support that the calomel is able to change valence form to elemental mercury and volatilize once exposed to the skin or surfaces in the indoor environment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4586653 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45866532015-10-06 Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) Copan, Lori Fowles, Jeff Barreau, Tracy McGee, Nancy Int J Environ Res Public Health Case Report Inorganic mercury, in the form of mercurous chloride, or calomel, is intentionally added to some cosmetic products sold through informal channels in Mexico and the US for skin lightening and acne treatment. These products have led to multiple cases of mercury poisoning but few investigations have addressed the contamination of cream users’ homes. We report on several cases of mercury poisoning among three Mexican-American families in California from use of mercury-containing skin creams. Each case resulted in widespread household contamination and secondary contamination of family members. Urine mercury levels in cream users ranged from 37 to 482 µg/g creatinine and in non-users from non-detectable to 107 µg/g creatinine. Air concentrations of up to 8 µg/m(3) of mercury within homes exceeded the USEPA/ATSDR health-based guidance and action level of <1.0 μg/m(3). Mercury contamination of cream users’ homes presented a multi-pathway exposure environment to residents. Homes required extensive decontamination, including disposal of most household items, to achieve acceptable air levels. The acceptable air levels used were not designed to consider multi-pathway exposure scenarios. These findings support that the calomel is able to change valence form to elemental mercury and volatilize once exposed to the skin or surfaces in the indoor environment. MDPI 2015-09-02 2015-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4586653/ /pubmed/26364641 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120910943 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Case Report Copan, Lori Fowles, Jeff Barreau, Tracy McGee, Nancy Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) |
title | Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) |
title_full | Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) |
title_fullStr | Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) |
title_full_unstemmed | Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) |
title_short | Mercury Toxicity and Contamination of Households from the Use of Skin Creams Adulterated with Mercurous Chloride (Calomel) |
title_sort | mercury toxicity and contamination of households from the use of skin creams adulterated with mercurous chloride (calomel) |
topic | Case Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586653/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26364641 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120910943 |
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