title: Mercury exposure from interior latex paint.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many paint companies have used phenylmercuric acetate as a preservative to prolong the shelf life of interior latex paint. In August 1989, acrodynia, a form of mercury poisoning, occurred in a child exposed to paint fumes in a home recently painted with a brand containing 4.7 mmol of mercury per liter (at that time the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended limit was 1.5 mmol or less per liter).
  
  
  METHODS
  To determine whether the recent use of that brand of paint containing phenylmercuric acetate was associated with elevated indoor-air and urinary mercury concentrations, we studied 74 "exposed" persons living in 19 homes recently painted with the brand and 28 "unexposed" persons living in 10 homes not recently painted with paint containing mercury.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The paint samples from the homes of exposed persons contained a median of 3.8 mmol of mercury per liter, and air samples from the homes had a median mercury content of 10.0 nmol per cubic meter (range, less than 0.5 to 49.9). No mercury was detected in paint or air samples from the homes of unexposed persons. The median urinary mercury concentration was higher in the exposed persons (4.7 nmol of mercury per millimole of creatinine; range, 1.4 to 66.5) than in the unexposed persons (1.1 nmol per millimole; range, 0.02 to 3.9; P less than 0.001). Urinary mercury concentrations within the range that we found in exposed persons have been associated with symptomatic mercury poisoning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that potentially hazardous exposure to mercury had occurred among persons whose homes were painted with a brand of paint containing mercury at concentrations approximately 2 1/2 times the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended limit.
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30306.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Agocs
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Etzel
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Parrish
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Paschal
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Campagna
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Kilbourne
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hesse
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000652:urine; D008875:Middle Aged; D010150:Paint / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D010662:Phenylmercuric Acetate / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D008628:Mercury; D010662:Phenylmercuric Acetate