Polymorphisms in Genes Encoding Potential Mercury Transporters and Urine Mercury Concentrations in Populations Exposed to Mercury Vapor from Gold Mining

About 10–15 million persons work as gold
miners, and approximately 30–50 million
live in small-scale gold-mining areas (Spiegel
et al. 2005). Earlier studies in the Philippines
(Drasch et al. 2001), Indonesia (Bose-O’Reilly
et al. 2010a), Tanzania (Bose-O’Reilly et al.
2010b), Zimbabwe (Lettmeier et al. 2010),
and Ecuador (Harari et al. 2012) have shown
that many persons who work or live in gold
mining areas are highly exposed to inorganic
Hg from gold mining, as can be seen from
high concentrations of Hg in urine (U-Hg).
However, large differences in U-Hg levels
among persons with similar exposures have
been reported
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