Mercury - are we studying the right endpoints and mechanisms

Mercury and methylmercury are major environmental contaminants. New concern s have arisen based upon reports of increasing levels in biota and ecosyste ms, as well as concerns for low level toxicity. Despite the substantial kno wledge about mercury toxicity, there are gaps in our knowledge that limit t he development of science based risk assessments. First, mechanistic resear ch on mercury/methylmercury toxicity is not clearly related to sublethal an d noncytotoxic effects. Second, relatively little attention has been paid t o nonneurotoxic effects of mercury, specifically, immunototoxic effects. Be cause of this, caution is needed in evaluating the health risk of mercury, particularly if important sources of ongoing releases are not identified or adequately controlled. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.