Abstract
The study investigated residual effects of high levels of occupational mercury exposure, 30 years after a cohort of women worked in public service dentistry. They had all used copper amalgam in a pellet form that required heating and handling, and silver amalgam before the encapsulated form was available. Mercury handling practices changed in the mid-1970 when the workforce was urine tested and mercury poisoning became apparent. The aim was to compare control group and exposed group scores on tasks from a neurobehavioural test battery; plus survey results from a composite health, work history and environmental influences survey. The findings showed that the exposed and control groups were equivalent not only on those variables that one would want to be matched (age, alcohol consumption), but also on many of the cognitive and psychomotor test scores. The present paper focuses on psychomotor skill and tremor patterns. Tremor patterns were seen as generating new evidence of long term effects of the historic mercury insult. Data also suggest that there may be a distinctive mercury “fingerprint”, in samples of sinusoidal waveforms that may have potential as a non-invasive sub-clinical biomarker for adverse effects of mercury exposure, in screening or workplace monitoring.
Highlights
IntroductionThe filling materials were copper amalgam for deciduous teeth, and silver amalgam for permanent teeth
The aim of the present paper is to report on psychomotor assessment, including tremor analysis, from a neurobehavioural test battery, with women who were occupationally exposed to mercury as young women, at least 30 years prior to their assessment, and matched controls with no history of occupational exposure to heavy metals (Findings from other tests are reported elsewhere [21])
In a 30-year follow-up study of mid-life women occupationally exposed to mercury, there was little evidence to show they had been compromised in psychomotor skill by their earlier exposure
Summary
The filling materials were copper amalgam for deciduous teeth, and silver amalgam for permanent teeth. Many had been medically diagnosed with mood disorders that were incorrectly attributed the notion that women were emotionally labile, rather than suffering from mercury poisoning. Copper amalgam was withdrawn from use in 1975 and the use of silver amalgam has persisted, an encapsulated form was introduced with mechanical mixing. This has created a natural experimental design for investigating three little-reported aspects of occupational mercury safety: possible long term effects, effects on woman, and studies of metals including the heavy metal, mercury, in dental materials generally
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