Mercury poisoning

What it is

Mercury poisoning is caused mainly through ingestion or inhalation of any of the 3 forms of mercury, elemental, organic, and inorganic. Exposure to elemental mercury affects the pulmonary (inhalation of mercury vapors causes coughing, chills, fever, shortness of breath), dermatological (mild swelling, vesiculation, scaling, irritation, urticaria, erythema and allergic contact dermatitis accompanied by pain), and peripheral and central nervous (CNS) systems (depression, paranoia, extreme irritability, hallucinations, inability to concentrate, memory loss, hands, head, lips, tongue, jaw and eyelids tremors, weight loss, perpetually low body temperature, drowsiness, headaches, insomnia, fatigue). Exposure to inorganic mercury generally causes development of a metallic taste, local oropharyngeal pain, nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, colic abdominal pain, renal dysfunction and, neurologic abnormalities; while that to organic mercury can lead to delayed neurotoxicity.

Key facts

Prevalence

1-9 / 100 000 (Europe)

Age of onset

All ages

Inheritance

Not applicable

Classified as

Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Cross-references