The determination of total mercury in blood and urine samples collected from people worker in and living beside the Al-Furat Company for Industrial Chemistry- Saddat Al-Hindia/ Iraq

Abstract

     Mercury toxicity can be predicted by the detection of elevated concentrations of mercury in blood and urine samples. A cross sectional study was conducted to evaluate the mercury levels in blood and urine samples of twenty five persons of workers from Al-Furat Company and people living beside. The persons enrolled were divided into five groups according to their potential mercury contact. All samples were digested and analyzed by Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (CVAAS). Two factors were considered in the present study: age and duration of potential exposure to mercury.  The results showed that the group one revealed higher mercury concentration in blood and urine (mean=0.05394 µg/ml, p-value ≥0.001 and mean= 247.6178, p-value ≥0.05respectivlly) in comparison with all other groups. Regarding the age, the people is divided into three age intervals, there is a positive correlation between age and mercury in blood, the age interval more than forty years revealed high mercury level in blood (mean=0.02691 µg/ml) in comparison with other two intervals, while the youngest people (less than thirty years), excrete higher mercury concentrations in urine (mean=127.702 µg/ml) than older. Moreover, the group of long period of exposure (more than twenty years) revealed an increased mercury levels in blood (mean=0.02958 µg/ml). However, there is diminishing in mercury concentrations in urine in the interval more than twenty years of exposure (16.7155  µg/ml).