Neuropsychological and stress evaluation of a residential mercury exposure

Residents of a former factory building converted to apartments were exposed to mercury over a 2-year period. The neurobehavioral and emotional health effects of this exposure and subsequent evacuation are presented. Urine mer cury levels were measured before (urine1) and 3-10 weeks after evacuation ( urine2) of the building, when neurobehavioral and psychological measures we re also completed. Performance on neurobehavioral and psychologic measures were compared between subjects above and below the median for urine1 (great er than or equal to 19 mu g/g creatinine) and were correlated with urine1 m ercury levels. The high urine mercury group made more errors on a test of f ine motor function and 84% of the residents reported clinically significant elevations in somatic and psychologic symptoms. Although subclinical tremo r from mercury exposure may have affected subtle hand-eye coordination, oth er tests of motor function were not affected. Therefore, the observation of reduced hand-eye coordination may be due to chance. Significant levels of psychosocial stress were more closely associated with the evacuation necess itated by mercury exposure rather than a direct effect of mercury exposure.