Evaluation of the skin uptake of mercuric chloride in man

✍ Scribed by Bożena Baranowska-dutkiewicz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 278 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0260-437X
• DOI: 10.1002/jat.2550020502

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Skin on the forearms of male human volunteers was exposed to aqueous HgCl~2~ solutions. It was assumed that loss of mercury from the test solution was equivalent to percutaneous absorption. Two parameters important for influencing uptake considered as the rate of absorption were investigated: the concentration of HgCl~2~ solutions (0.01, 0.1 and 0.2 M) and the time of exposure (5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 min). The absorption rate from 0.1 M HgCl~2~ solution decreased from 9.3 μg cm^−2^ min^−1^ during a 5 min exposure to 2.5 μg cm^−2^ min^−1^ during a 1 h exposure. A ten‐fold decrease of HgCl~2~ concentration resulted in an approximately ten‐fold decrease of the absorption rate, from 4.6 to 0.4 μg cm^−2^ min^−1^ during a 30 min exposure. The results indicate that the absorption rate is a directly related function of concentration and an indirectly related function of time of exposure.