Mercury poisoning

Mercury poisoning

Mercury poisoning is actually a term which is describe after the person had been expose to mercury. Mercury can exist in several forms, and all forms are poisonous. Mercury poisoning can result in several diseases, including acrodynia (pink disease), Hunter-Russell syndrome, and Minamata disease. Symptoms for mercury poisoning include vision, hearing and speech impairment, unable to make proper decision and lack of coordination. The type of symptoms depends on what is the concentration and the period which the person is expose.

As you know mercury exist in 3 different forms, they are element mercury, organic mercury (methylmercury) and inorganic (mercury II chloride). These 3 different types of mercury produce different types of health effects and their source of entering into your body is also different.

Acute

In acute effects, when a person inhale a high concentration of element mercury it will effects the central nerves system and the person will have tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular changes, headaches, slow sensory and slow motor nerve function ( motor nerve is actually nerves that transfer information to the muscles to perform an action) and reduction in cognitive function ( the person is still able to continue with his/her everyday life but they have difficulty in remember things, for example, people’s name, what had he/she done the whole day).

For inorganic mercury, after consumption of inorganic mercury compounds , beside metallic taste in the mouth, nausea (uneasy in the stomach), vomiting and severe abdominal pain .

For organic mercury, it will effect your central nerve system, which is blindness, deafness and the person’s conscious level

Chronic

In chronic causes, element mercury will affect your central nerve system. The effects include erethism( increase in excitability), excessive shyness. Insomnia, gingivitis (inflammation of gum) and tremors. It also affects the kidney which will lead to proteinuria (presence of serum proteins in the urine). For children, it will cause acrodynia. The symptoms are severe leg cramps, paresthesia (sensation of prickling on the skin), painful pink fingers and peeling skins of hands, feet and nose.

For inorganic mercury, it will affect yr kidney. The reasons is because mercury-induced autoimmune glomerulonephritis (this effect the immune response to the body’s kidney tissue)

For organic mercury, the main target is actually the central nerve system. The symptoms are paraesthesia (an abnormal sensation of the skin, for example numbness, tingling, pickling, burning or even something crawling on your hand) , blurred vision and malaise (discomfort ). In higher concentration, it will cause deafness, speech difficulties and constriction of the visual field.

When mercury enters into nature, for example lakes and streams, the bacteria in the water bodies will reacts and convert some of the mercury into and organic form called methylemercury. Methylemercury is then entered thru the fishes living in the effected water bodies. When humans and other animals consume this fishes, methylemercury is enter into the consumer. Animals that consume this fishes have different effects depending what is the concentration they had consumed and other factors. Some animals population decrease, the younglings is deformed or it may even cause death