Five hundred years of mercury exposure and adaptation.

Guido Lombardi,Antonio Lanzirotti,Clifford Qualls,Francisco Socola,Abdul-Mehdi Ali,Otto Appenzeller

doi:10.1155/2012/472858

Abstract

Mercury is added to the biosphere by anthropogenic activities raising the question of whether changes in the human chromatin, induced by mercury, in a parental generation could allow adaptation of their descendants to mercury. We review the history of Andean mining since pre-Hispanic times in Huancavelica, Peru. Despite the persistent degradation of the biosphere today, no overt signs of mercury toxicity could be discerned in present day inhabitants. However, mercury is especially toxic to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). We, therefore, tested ANS function and biologic rhythms, under the control of the ANS, in 5 Huancavelicans and examined the metal content in their hair. Mercury levels varied from none to 1.014 ppm, significantly less than accepted standards. This was confirmed by microfocused synchrotron X-ray fluorescence analysis. Biologic rhythms were abnormal and hair growth rate per year, also under ANS control, was reduced (P < 0.001). Thus, evidence of mercury's toxicity in ANS function was found without other signs of intoxication. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis of partial transgenerational inheritance of tolerance to mercury in Huancavelica, Peru. This would generally benefit survival in the Anthropocene, the man-made world, we now live in.

Highlights

The largest mercury processing in the Western Hemisphere was in Huancavelica in the Peruvian Andes, a town of 30,000 people situated at 3676 m altitude
Because the length of the hair reflects the duration of the stored information on biologic rhythms, our study was confined to women who generally have longer hair
The mercury levels varied from none detectable to 1.041 ppm

Summary

Introduction

The largest mercury processing in the Western Hemisphere was in Huancavelica in the Peruvian Andes, a town of 30,000 people situated at 3676 m altitude. The extensive mercury deposits have been mined since preHispanic times, they are just above the present town at ∼4000 m. The legacy of 500 years of mercury mining is found in the city trenches and waterways [1], which are lined with mercury but this legacy is less evident in today’s inhabitants of Huancavelica. Unhealthy occupation but nowhere was it more health threatening than in Colonial South America, especially in Huancavelica. The widespread ecological impacts of mining in the Andes such as landscape destruction and pollution through the introduction of mercury and other toxicants into the biosphere were overshadowed by the population shifts to the sparsely inhabited highlands. There, the challenges of survival in the ambient hypoxia of altitude, at which mining generally occurs in the Andes, were added to the deleterious health effects of mining

Methods

Results

Conclusion