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Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia

In Colombia, the inhabitants of the Mojana region have historically been subjected to high levels of environmental and occupational exposure to mercury; however, there are few robust data on the magnitude of this exposure and associated factors. This study aimed to describe the levels of mercury in...

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Autores principales: Díaz, Sonia Mireya, Muñoz-Guerrero, Maria Nathalia, Palma-Parra, Marien, Becerra-Arias, Carolina, Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30360528
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112337
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author Díaz, Sonia Mireya
Muñoz-Guerrero, Maria Nathalia
Palma-Parra, Marien
Becerra-Arias, Carolina
Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo
author_facet Díaz, Sonia Mireya
Muñoz-Guerrero, Maria Nathalia
Palma-Parra, Marien
Becerra-Arias, Carolina
Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo
author_sort Díaz, Sonia Mireya
collection PubMed
description In Colombia, the inhabitants of the Mojana region have historically been subjected to high levels of environmental and occupational exposure to mercury; however, there are few robust data on the magnitude of this exposure and associated factors. This study aimed to describe the levels of mercury in the workers and inhabitants in this region, and to identify the main sociodemographic and occupational factors that are associated with this exposure. A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which mercury levels were determined in biological samples (blood, urine, hair) from 1119 people in the Mojana region. A questionnaire was also administered, which was adapted from the Global Mercury Assessment. Linear regression models were adjusted for the natural logarithm of mercury levels in blood, urine, and hair, using the factors that were explored as independent variables. The study reports high mercury levels in 35.0% of blood samples (95% CI 31.9–38.1%), 28.8% (95% CI 24.9–32.8%) of urine samples, and 56.3% (95% CI 53.1–59.5%) of hair samples. The reported source of water for consumption was associated with high levels of mercury (p-value < 0.05). We provide evidence of high levels of mercury exposure for the population in the Mojana region.
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spelling pubmed-62668102018-12-15 Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia Díaz, Sonia Mireya Muñoz-Guerrero, Maria Nathalia Palma-Parra, Marien Becerra-Arias, Carolina Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In Colombia, the inhabitants of the Mojana region have historically been subjected to high levels of environmental and occupational exposure to mercury; however, there are few robust data on the magnitude of this exposure and associated factors. This study aimed to describe the levels of mercury in the workers and inhabitants in this region, and to identify the main sociodemographic and occupational factors that are associated with this exposure. A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which mercury levels were determined in biological samples (blood, urine, hair) from 1119 people in the Mojana region. A questionnaire was also administered, which was adapted from the Global Mercury Assessment. Linear regression models were adjusted for the natural logarithm of mercury levels in blood, urine, and hair, using the factors that were explored as independent variables. The study reports high mercury levels in 35.0% of blood samples (95% CI 31.9–38.1%), 28.8% (95% CI 24.9–32.8%) of urine samples, and 56.3% (95% CI 53.1–59.5%) of hair samples. The reported source of water for consumption was associated with high levels of mercury (p-value < 0.05). We provide evidence of high levels of mercury exposure for the population in the Mojana region. MDPI 2018-10-23 2018-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6266810/ /pubmed/30360528 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112337 Text en © 2018 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 (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Díaz, Sonia Mireya
Muñoz-Guerrero, Maria Nathalia
Palma-Parra, Marien
Becerra-Arias, Carolina
Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo
Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia
title Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia
title_full Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia
title_fullStr Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia
title_full_unstemmed Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia
title_short Exposure to Mercury in Workers and the Population Surrounding Gold Mining Areas in the Mojana Region, Colombia
title_sort exposure to mercury in workers and the population surrounding gold mining areas in the mojana region, colombia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30360528
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112337
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