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Mercury-selenium interaction at concentrations of selenium and of mercury vapours as prevalent in nature

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Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Conclusion

The most striking conclusion from this experiment is that dietary selenium influences the distribution of mercury in tissues of rats exposed to occupational amounts of metallic mercury in the air. Moreover increased dietary selenium does not increase the tissue retention of mercury contrary to earlier investigations. Finally HgO and Hg++ seems to be distributed by different routes in the rat brain.

As a corollary it must be emphasized that blood mercury values are not a valid indicator of mercury exposure i.a. due to the fact that dietary selenium influences the mercury concentration in the blood.

Further research of the geographical distribution of dietary selenium should be carried out before evaluation of environmental and occupational exposure of mercury can be carried out.

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References

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  • SCHWARZ, K.: Med. Clin. North Am.60, 745 (1976).

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  • WELSH, S.: Physiological Effects of Methyl Mercury toxicity: Interaction of Methyl Mercury with Selenium, Tellurium, and Vitamin E. University of Maryland 1974.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hygiene, University of Aarhus, Denmark

    Sven-Peter Nygaard & Jens Carl Hansen

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  1. Sven-Peter Nygaard
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  2. Jens Carl Hansen
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Nygaard, SP., Hansen, J.C. Mercury-selenium interaction at concentrations of selenium and of mercury vapours as prevalent in nature. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 20, 20–23 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01683479

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01683479

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