ABSTRACT
Exposure to metals and their derivatives in industrial processing, to their emissions from power plants and from waste deposits constitute a human health risk, both in an occupational setting and in normal everyday activities among the general population. According to EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory for the year 2000, metal mining accounted for 47% of their releases into air, water, and land (7.10 billion lb), and of the bioaccumulative releases, mercury and mercury compounds accounted for 36% of the total 12.1 million lb. Besides respiratory and gastrointestinal exposure, traditionally a prime concern in toxicology, also skin contact more recently has gained recognition as an important port of entry for xenobiotics into the living organism. Cases of morbidity and mortality due to exposure of the skin to toxic agents has contributed to such a shift in attention (Plueckhahn et al., 1978; Toribara et al., 1997).
