Article Text

Download PDFPDF
The inhibition of mercury absorption by dietary ethanol in humans: cross-sectional and case-control studies

Abstract

Background: Since the inhibition of mercury absorption by ethanol was serendipitously discovered in 1965,1 a limited number of small number studies with both animal and human subjects have reported results consistent with this finding.

Aims: To investigate this phenomenon in a large scale human study with low level Hg exposed dentists.

Methods: Data were collected for a sample of 1171dentists, and both cross sectional and case-control methods were utilised to examine the data.

Results: Abstainers (n = 345) had significantly higher urinary mercury concentrations (HgU) than drinkers (n = 826): 5.4 μg/l v 4.8 μg/l. Multiple linear regression showed a significant effect of ethanol dose on HgU after adjusting for potential confounders. A case-control analysis in which cases were defined as those individuals with urinary Hg concentrations of ⩾15 μg/l (≈ top 5%), and controls as those with concentrations of <1.0 μg/l (≈ bottom 5%), showed a clear protective dose-response relation; there was a decreasing risk of being a “case” (having an HgU ⩾15 μg/l) with increasing ethanol consumption. The significance of the adjusted model is p<0.001, and the χ2 test for trend across ethanol consumption categories in the adjusted model is p<0.05, confirming the dose-response relation.

Conclusion: We believe that this straightforward investigation provides the first specific confirmation in a large scale human study of the inhibitory effect of ethanol on urinary mercury concentration, and by inference, on mercury absorption.

  • human
  • ethanol
  • mercury
  • absorption

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.