This review covers the toxicology of mercury and its compounds. Special attention is paid to those forms of mercury of current public health concern. Human exposure to the vapor of metallic mercury dates back to antiquity but continues today in occupational settings and from dental amalgam. Health risks from methylmercury in edible tissues of fish have been the subject of several large epidemiological investigations and continue to be the subject of intense debate. Ethylmercury in the form of a preservative, thimerosal, added to certain vaccines, is the most recent form of mercury that has become a public health concern. The review leads to general discussion of evolutionary aspects of mercury, protective and toxic mechanisms, and ends on a note that mercury is still an "element of mystery."

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Mercury is ubiquitous in the environment and therefore every human being, irrespective of age and location, is exposed to one form of mercury or another. The major source of environmental mercury is natural degassing of the earth's crust, but industrial activities can raise exposure to toxic levels directly or through the use or misuse of the liquid metals or synthesized mercurial compounds. The aim of this review is to survey differences in human exposure and in the toxicology of different forms of mercury. It covers not only symptoms and signs observed in poisoned individuals by a clinician but also subclinical effects in population studies, the final evaluation of which is the domain of statisticians.

A simple method for the determination of total mercury in biological samples contaminated with inorganic mercury and methylmercury is described. The method is based on the rapid conversion of organomercurials first into inorganic mercury and then into atomic mercury suitable for aspiration through the gas cell of a mercury vapour concentration meter, by a combined tin(I1) chloridecadmium chloride reagent. It was found that if 100 mg of tin(I1) chloride alone were added instead of the tin(I1) chloridecadmium chloride reagent, only the release of inorganic mercury influenced the peak deflection of the potentiometer, thus permitting the selective determination of inorganic mercury in the presence of methylmercury. It was possible first to release inorganic mercury then, after re-acidification of the reaction mixture, methylmercury, by adding the tin (11) chloridecadmium chloride reagent and sodium hydroxide. When total mercury and inorganic mercury were determined separately, the difference between results gave the methylmercury content of the sample. 0 SAC and the author.