Determination of total mercury in workers' urine in gold shops of Itaituba, Para State, Brazil

Gold extraction and its commercialization in the Amazon region is mainly by rudimentary procedures. Therefore, during the process of extraction and re covery of this precious metal, large amounts of mercury vapors are thrown i nto the environment. This paper is an attempt to establish a correlation be tween the concentration of total mercury in the urine of workers at the gol d shop in the Municipality of Itaituba, Para, and the information related t o the lifestyles of each individual studied. Through statistical analysis, it was possible to divide the workers into three groups: people with normal mercury concentrations, [Hg] less than or equal to 10 ppb, (29%); with con centrations at the biological limit of tolerance, [Hg] up to 50 ppb, (49%); and contaminated people, [Hg] greater than or equal to 50 ppb (22%), It ma y be concluded that fish consumption, time of alcohol consumption, number o f amalgam fillings, as well as working hours, are important variables when evaluating mercurial contamination of people who are occupationally exposed to mercury vapors. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.