Assessing elemental mercury vapor exposure from cultural and religious practices

Use of elemental mercury in certain cultural and religious practices can ca use high exposures to mercury vapor. Uses include sprinkling mercury on the floor of a home or car, burning it in a candle, and mixing it with perfume . Some uses can produce indoor air mercury concentrations one or two orders of magnitude above occupational exposure limits. Exposures resulting from other uses, such as infrequent use of a small bead of mercury, could be wel l below currently recognized risk levels. Metallic mercury is available at almost all of the 15 botanicas visited in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl vania, but botanica personnel often deny having mercury for sale when appro ached by outsiders to these religious and cultural traditions. Actions by p ublic health authorities have driven the mercury trade underground in some locations. Interviews indicate that mercury users are aware that mercury is hazardous, but are not aware of the inhalation exposure risk. We argue aga inst a crackdown by health authorities because it could drive the practices further underground, because high-risk practices may be rare, and because uninformed government intervention could have unfortunate political and civ ic side effects for some Caribbean and Latin American immigrant groups. We recommend an outreach and education program involving religious and communi ty leaders, botanica personnel, and other mercury users.