Abstract

Mercury exists in three forms- elemental (liquid mercury), inorganic mercury and organic mercury (methyl mercury). Elemental mercury or quick silver is the most commonly available form that is processed from an ore called cinnabar. Ingestion of elemental mercury can occur as an occupational or domestic hazard, mishandling or as an attempt to suicide. Although the oral ingestion of elemental mercury is unlikely to cause systemic toxicity due to its poor absorption by the gastrointestinal tract, it can cause adverse effects during any developmental period. Here we present a case of a 2-year old male child who accidentally ingested mercury from a household mercury thermometer. The child did not show any severe signs of toxicity or other systemic symptoms and was stable in the 24th and 48th hours following ingestion and after the 8th week follow-up. His blood parameters, vital signs, RR, HR, LFT and RFT were normal. X-ray abdomen showed radiopaque spots. The aim of this case report is to create awareness among Paediatricians, nurses and other health care workers to understand the systemic effects of mercury and prepare them to handle such cases in the medical practice. Mercury and its toxic effects may be taken as granted in the domestic; therefore, more awareness must be created in the patient population too, to stop the domestic use of mercury thermometers and encourage the use of infrared thermometers. This case report also presents an extensive review of mercury and effects of poisoning.

Keywords: Liquid Mercury; Organic Mercury; Mercuric Salts

References

1. World Health Organization. Exposure to mercury: A major public health concern. WHO, Public Health and Environment Geneva (2007).
2. Clarkson TW., et al. “The toxicology of mercury—current exposures and clinical manifestations”. The New England Journal of Medicine349 (2003): 1731-1737.
3. Bernhoft RA. “Mercury toxicity and treatment: a review of the literature”. Journal of Environmental and Public Health (2012): 460508.
4. M Berlin., et al. “’Mercury”. Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, G. F. Nordberg, B. A. Fowler, M. Nordberg, and L. T. Friberg, Eds., chapter 33, Elsevier, New York, NY, USA, 3rd edition (2007).
5. SB Skerfving and JF Copplestone. “Poisoning caused by the consumption of organomercury dressed seed in Iraq”. Bulletin of the World Health Organization1 (1976): 101-112.
6. Boyd AS., et al. “Mercury exposure and cutaneous disease”. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 43 (2000): 81-90.
7. McKay CA., et al. “Mercury”. In: Erickson TB, Baum CR, Ling LJ, eds, Pediatric Toxicology: Diagnosis and Management of the Poisoned Child. NewYork, PA: The Mc- Graw-Hill Companies (2005): 468-475.
8. Kolkhorst KS and Kulkarni PM. “Accidental metallic mercury in- gestion”. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association 112 (2012): 381.
9. World Health Organization. “Inorganic mercury: environmental health criteria 118”. International Programme on Chemical Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland (1991).
10. HM Boylan., et al. “A new method to assess mercury emissions: a study of three coal-fired electric-generating power station configurations”. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association 11 (2003): 1318-1325.
11. M Richardson. The Safety of Dental Amalgam, ISBN 0-662-24873-2, Minister of Health, Canada (1996).
12. A Berglund., et al. “Determination of the rate of release of intra-oral mercury vapor from amalgam”. Journal of Dental Research9 (1988): 1235-1242.
13. Mahajan PV. “Heavy Metal Intoxication Mercury”. In: Kliegman RM, Geme JW, Schor NF, Behrman RE, eds, Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 19th ed. Philadelphia PA: Elsevier Saunders (2011): 2448.
14. JG Schwartz., et al. “Toxicity of a family from vacuumed mercury”. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 3 (1992): 258-261.
15. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - ATSDR. Public Health Service. Toxicological Profile for Mercury (1999).
16. Tchounwou PB., et al. “Environmental exposure to mercury and its toxicopathologic implications for public health”. Environment Toxicology 18 (2003): 149-175.
17. HV Aposhian. “DMSA and DMPS—water soluble antidotes for heavy metal poisoning”. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology 23 (1983): 193-215.

Citation

Citation: Priya B and Varshini C. “Accidental Mercury Ingestion in a 2-Year Old: A Case Report”.Acta Scientific Paediatrics 3.10 (2020): 21-24.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Priya B and Varshini C. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.