This is mainly a list of references enlightening aspects of man's mercury burden. It is not a complete list, but I think there is interesting information to retrieve. Suggestions to additions are welcome.

Sources For Mercury Exposure

Occupational

Examples: mining, electrical industry, fluorescent lamp manufacturing, glass blowing in the making of neon signs, hat making, tanning, laboratories, manufacture of instruments (thermometers!), dentistry, fishing, chlor-alkali industry, farming, and more. Risks differ geographically and culturally. Some risks may be historical at one place and real at another place.

Amalgam

Mercury in dental amalgam is the source for exposure of dental patients and an occupational hazard in dentistry. For the general population dental amalgam is the main source for exposure to mercury.

Fish

Fish is the main source for methylmercury. Industrial waste into the Minamata Bay in Japan was the cause of theMinamata catastrophy. Another outbreak of what since then is known as the Minamata disease ocucured in Niigata, also in Japan. - Metallic mercury gets methylated in nature (including the human body), and methylmercury gets demethylated, so there is reason to talk about mercury in the sense of "mercury compounds", as well as keeping in mind that different compounds may differ in action.

Environmental

Examples: industrial pollution (see about Minamata above) from wastes - combustion plants, dentistry, all kinds of manufacture where mercury is used (gold mining is the most actual example), sewage water from households (faeces and urine from the people with amalgam fillings in their teeth or otherwise exposed to mercury). It is to note that for example old gold mining places and chlor alcali industry plants are places where soil is highly contaminated with mercury. Also water locks are traps for mercury in sewage water from dental offices, laboratories, pharmacies and other places where mercury has been handled. This is a real risk for plummers doing work in such places not knowing what is there. Latex paints may have a mercury contents making people living in rooms where it is used ill.

Regardless of contributions from man's activities (antropogenic origin) there is a slow increase in mercury contamination world wide from natural sources. Most of the yearly refined mercury is used in gold mining. About 1% of the total world production is put into the teeth of the U.S. population (about a 100 tons on a yearly basis). The total population load in Sweden (a total of about 9 million inhabitants) is estimated to be about 100 tons.

Accidents

The most usual accident is probably broken thermometers with mercury droplets spreading. Several cases of illness following this kind of exposure are described. Other accidents are in industry, dental offices, and involuntary ingestion. Above the plummers risk of working with systems where mercury is trapped, serious accidents are known.

Medicals And Ointments

Mercury is used as a preservative in many vaccines. In the treatment of syphilis mercury has taken a prominent place from the 16th century long into modern times. Eyedrops and ointments are examples of where mercury still may be in use. Names containing "mercuric", "mercapto", "thio", "cinnobar" are indicative of mercury contents.

Others

Old mirrors, barometers, latex paint, batteries, reagents in laboratories, emissions from crematories, electronics, fossile fuels, and more.

Three Parameters Influencing Effects of Mercury

1. Dose and time of exposure

2. Sensitivity

3. Interactions (e.g. other chemical agents including other metals in the mouth together with amalgam/silver fillings, electromagnetic fields)

A Few Introductory Texts on Mercury Toxicity

[WHO:] Environmental Health Criteria 118. INORGANIC MERCURY - SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.

In the full report is stated that:

1. For people not occupationally exposed to mercury the most important source for mercury is dental amalgam;
2. There is no safe lower limit for mercury exposure;
3. Some people may be more sensitive and react on very low doses.

Murray J Vimy: Toxic Teeth: The Chronic Mercury Poisoning of Modern Man.

Skare I, Engqvist A: : Human Exposure to Mercury and Silver Released from Dental Amalgam Restorations. This is only the abstract from Arch Environ Health 49:384-394 (1994). ISSN 0003-9896. The full article contains a review of other estimations done and provides a thorough description of the model used for estimation as well as a flow chart of how mercury get in and out of the human body.

Also make sure to read these books: Poison in Your Teeth: Mercury Amalgam (Silver) Fillings...Hazardous to Your Health! and Mercury Detoxification by Tom McGuire