Abstract
Mercury concentrations in whole blood of 210 patients admitted to two urban hospitals ranged from 0 to 298 ppb with a mean of 14.2 ppb. When corrected by omission of nine values over 50 ppb the mean was 8.1 ppb. Although mean values for men were slightly higher than those for women, this difference was not significant. Results of a 12-test blood chemistry screening profile were available for 186 subjects, but no correlation between mercury concentrations in blood and those chemistry measurements could be detected. Simultaneous determinations of mercury in whole blood and plasma were performed for 65 subjects; the mean for plasma was 5.0 ppb, somewhat below the mean of 6.3 ppb for whole blood in the same group. Other surveys have shown corrected values of 13.3 and 6.7 ppb for normal populations. These values are very much higher than current estimates of 0 to 2 ppb for normals. Levels are higher in urban residents than in rural probably because of increased exposure to combined industrial and environmental sources. The mean level appears to be 8 ppb with a range of 0 to 30 ppb.
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