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A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study

Exposures to toxic metals such as mercury have been suggested to be risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Human intake of mercury commonly occurs via consumption of seafood or from mercury-containing amalgam dental restorations (‘mercury fillings’). We therefore compared mercury expo...

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Autores principales: Parkin Kullmann, Jane A., Pamphlett, Roger
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6313312/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30558238
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122874
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author Parkin Kullmann, Jane A.
Pamphlett, Roger
author_facet Parkin Kullmann, Jane A.
Pamphlett, Roger
author_sort Parkin Kullmann, Jane A.
collection PubMed
description Exposures to toxic metals such as mercury have been suggested to be risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Human intake of mercury commonly occurs via consumption of seafood or from mercury-containing amalgam dental restorations (‘mercury fillings’). We therefore compared mercury exposures from these sources in 401 ALS and 452 non-ALS respondents, using an internationally-available online questionnaire that asked respondents how often they ate seafood and what their favourite types of seafoods were. Respondents were also asked to record numbers of current or former mercury fillings. ALS and non-ALS respondents did not differ in their frequency of seafood consumption or in monthly mercury intake from favourite seafoods. Both groups had similar numbers of current, as well as former, mercury fillings. In conclusion, this study found no evidence that mercury exposure from eating seafood, or from mercury dental fillings, was associated with the risk of developing ALS. Therefore, if mercury does play a role in the pathogenesis of ALS, other sources of exposure to mercury in the environment or workplace need to be considered. Alternatively, a susceptibility to mercury toxicity in ALS, such as genetic or epigenetic variations, multiple toxic metal interactions, or selenium deficiency, may be present.
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spelling pubmed-63133122019-06-17 A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study Parkin Kullmann, Jane A. Pamphlett, Roger Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Exposures to toxic metals such as mercury have been suggested to be risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Human intake of mercury commonly occurs via consumption of seafood or from mercury-containing amalgam dental restorations (‘mercury fillings’). We therefore compared mercury exposures from these sources in 401 ALS and 452 non-ALS respondents, using an internationally-available online questionnaire that asked respondents how often they ate seafood and what their favourite types of seafoods were. Respondents were also asked to record numbers of current or former mercury fillings. ALS and non-ALS respondents did not differ in their frequency of seafood consumption or in monthly mercury intake from favourite seafoods. Both groups had similar numbers of current, as well as former, mercury fillings. In conclusion, this study found no evidence that mercury exposure from eating seafood, or from mercury dental fillings, was associated with the risk of developing ALS. Therefore, if mercury does play a role in the pathogenesis of ALS, other sources of exposure to mercury in the environment or workplace need to be considered. Alternatively, a susceptibility to mercury toxicity in ALS, such as genetic or epigenetic variations, multiple toxic metal interactions, or selenium deficiency, may be present. MDPI 2018-12-14 2018-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6313312/ /pubmed/30558238 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122874 Text en © 2018 by the author. 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
Parkin Kullmann, Jane A.
Pamphlett, Roger
A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study
title A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study
title_full A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study
title_fullStr A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study
title_full_unstemmed A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study
title_short A Comparison of Mercury Exposure from Seafood Consumption and Dental Amalgam Fillings in People with and without Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): An International Online Case-Control Study
title_sort comparison of mercury exposure from seafood consumption and dental amalgam fillings in people with and without amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als): an international online case-control study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6313312/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30558238
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122874
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