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Food safety threats (e.g.Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.Burkholderia pseudomallei (melioidosis).Brucella species (brucellocis) plus icon.Selected analytical methods: chemical methods query. Elemental mercury exposure: an evidence-based consensus guideline for out-of-hospital management. Caravati EM, Erdman AR, Christianson G, Nelson LS, Woolf AD, Booze LL, Cobaugh DJ, Chyka PA, Scharman EJ, Manoguerra AS, Troutman WG American Association of Poison Control Centers.Atlanta, GA: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology 1999. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.Elemental mercury poisoning in a household–Ohio, 1989. Current trends acute and chronic poisoning from residential exposures to elemental mercury–Michigan, 1989-1990.

Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man. In: Nelson LS, Lewin NA, Howland MA, Hoffman RS, Goldfrank LR, Flomenbaum NE, eds. The case can be confirmed if laboratory testing was not performed because either a predominant amount of clinical and nonspecific laboratory evidence of a particular chemical was present or the etiology of the agent is known with 100% certainty.

Confirmed: A clinically compatible case in which laboratory tests have confirmed exposure.

Probable: A clinically compatible case in which a high index of suspicion (credible threat or patient history regarding location and time) exists for elemental mercury exposure, or an epidemiologic link exists between this case and a laboratory-confirmed case.

Suspected: A case in which a potentially exposed person is being evaluated by healthcare workers or public health officials for poisoning by a particular chemical agent, but no specific credible threat exists.

Environmental: Detection of mercury in environmental samples.

Fish consumption can elevate total whole blood mercury concentrations. A urinary mercury concentration ≥ 10 ug/L or a total whole blood mercury concentration ≥ 10 ug/L is an unusual level of exposure for a person with no known occupational exposure to mercury.

Biologic: A case with an elevated urinary or whole blood mercury concentration.

Signs and symptoms might include neuropsychiatric disturbances (e.g., memory loss, irritability, or depression), tremor, paresthesias, gingivostomatitis, flushing, discoloration and desquamation of the hands and feet, and hypertension (1-6). Chronic exposure results in neurologic, dermatologic, and renal manifestations. Acute toxicity might result in fever, fatigue, and clinical signs of pneumonitis. Inhalational exposure is the most typical route of elemental mercury toxicity.

Symptoms of mercury poisoning in adults