Methyl mercury (MeHg) is a potent neurotoxin. Methyl mercury exposure took place at Niigata in the late 1950s and early 1960s due to industrial pollution of the Agano River. We studied adults who were exposed in utero or as children during that epidemic to determine their long-term outcomes. We contacted individuals with known exposure. Those who consented completed a questionnaire and then were interviewed. Thirty-nine subjects agreed to participate. Twenty-six subjects had health problems during their childhood and difficulties with schoolwork. As adults, some had difficulty with employment, but most led fairly normal family and social lives. Five subjects were considered to be socially maladjusted and eight others had social adjustment problems. Although some exposed subjects had health problems, many have been able to lead fairly normal lives.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2020.09.032 | DOI Listing |
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
January 2025
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, 44519, Egypt.
The residual concentration of pesticides and heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, selenium, lead, cadmium, and aluminum) was measured in the soil and the cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) liver from two localities at Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. The pesticide residues have taken the following pattern: chlorpyrifos > metalaxyl > piperonyl butoxide > thiophanate-methyl, in the soil. The residual concentration of pesticides was greater in the soil at Kafr El-Ashraf village (agricultural site) than at El-Qanayat city (garbage site) during the summer season of 2021 compared with the winter season of 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
January 2025
National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology and College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
The neurotoxin methylmercury (MeHg) is produced mainly from the transformation of inorganic Hg by microorganisms carrying the gene pair. Paddy soils are known to harbor diverse microbial communities exhibiting varying abilities in methylating inorganic Hg, but their distribution and environmental drivers remain unknown at a large spatial scale. Using gene amplicon sequencing, this study examined Hg-methylating communities from major rice-producing paddy soils across a transect of ∼3600 km and an altitude of ∼1300 m in China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Toxicol Chem
January 2025
Molecular Biosciences PhD Program, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, United States.
Riparian spiders are used in ecotoxicology as sentinels of bioavailable contaminants that are transferred from aquatic to terrestrial habitats via emergent aquatic insects. Spiders in the family Tetragnathidae are particularly of interest because a high proportion of their diet consists of emergent aquatic insects and their contaminant loads reflect the amount transferred through the food web to riparian predators. The transfer of contaminants can be determined through food web tracers such as stable isotopes and polyunsaturated fatty acids; however, it is unclear how contaminants and tracers vary over the course of a year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
January 2025
School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, UK.
Substantial amounts of mercury (Hg) are projected to be released into Arctic watersheds as permafrost thaws amid warmer and wetter conditions. This may have far-reaching consequences because the highly toxic methylated form of Hg biomagnifies rapidly in ecosystems. However, understanding how climate change affects Hg dynamics in permafrost regions is limited due to the lack of long-term Arctic Hg records.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
January 2025
U.S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, United States.
Significant variation in mercury (Hg) bioaccumulation is observed across the diversity of freshwater ecosystems in North America. While there is support for the major drivers of Hg bioaccumulation, the relative influence of different external factors can vary widely among waterbodies, which makes predicting Hg risk across large spatial scales particularly challenging. We modeled Hg bioaccumulation by coupling Hg concentrations in more than 21,000 dragonflies collected across the United States from 2008 to 2021 with a suite of chemical (e.
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