Abstract
The release of mercury (Hg) from dental amalgam fillings has been verified by several authors. In this study, the emission rate of Hg°-vapor from the oral cavity (O-Hg) and the urinary Hg-excretion rate (U-Hg) have been studied with 34 healthy individuals. In ten cases, the urinary excretions of silver (U-Ag) and the fecal excretions of Hg and Ag (F-Hg, F-Ag) were also monitored. All variables, except U-Ag, were significantly related to the load of amalgam. According to this study, an individual with a moderate load of ar lalgam, i.e. 30 restored surfaces, is predicted to exhibit the following emission rates: O-Hg=22, U-Hg=3, F-Hg=60 and F-Ag=27 µg/d (d=24 hours), consistent with a gross mass balance for Hg of approximately 60 µg/d. The corresponding systemic uptake of Hg was estimated to 12 µg/d based on external data relating air Hg°-exposures to urinary Hg-excretions. The worst case individual showed a gross mass balance of 200 µg Hg/d connected to a systemic uptake of 70 µg Hg/d. These values were compared to the average intake of to al-Hg by a Swedish diet (2 µg/d) and to the WHO’s tolerable value for intake of total-Hg by food (45 µg/d). Upscaled to the entire Swedish population (8 mill.), the data suggests a fecal/urinary emission to the environment of 100 kg Hg yearly originating from a population load of amalgam fillings containing 90,000 kg of Hg.
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Skare, I. (1995). Mass Balance and Systemic Uptake of Mercury Released from Dental Amalgam Fillings. In: Porcella, D.B., Huckabee, J.W., Wheatley, B. (eds) Mercury as a Global Pollutant. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0153-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0153-0_7
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