Skip Navigation


American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on October 26, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 165(1):72-77; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj345
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
165/1/72    most recent
kwj345v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hodgson, S.
Right arrow Articles by Jarup, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hodgson, S.
Right arrow Articles by Jarup, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Kidney Disease Mortality and Environmental Exposure to Mercury

Susan Hodgson, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Paul Elliott and Lars Jarup

From the Small Area Health Statistics Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Reprint requests to Dr. Susan Hodgson, Small Area Health Statistics Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, London W2 1PG, United Kingdom (e-mail: susan.hodgson{at}imperial.ac.uk).

Runcorn, North West England, has been a site of industrial activity for over 100 years. Preliminary investigations have revealed excess risk of renal mortality in the population living closest to several sources of pollution. Exposure to airborne mercury has been highlighted as a possible cause, although there is also concomitant exposure to solvents and other heavy metals in this population. The authors used validated air dispersion modeling to identify mercury-exposed populations. Standardized mortality ratios for kidney disease were computed using the North West government region as the reference. There was a significant exposure-response relation between modeled estimates of mercury exposure and risk of kidney disease mortality (test for trend: p = 0.02 for men and p = 0.03 for women), and this relation was more pronounced for estimated historical exposure (test for trend: p = 0.01 for men and p < 0.001 for women). These findings suggest that exposure to mercury is a possible cause of the excess kidney disease mortality in this population, indicating that there might still be a health legacy of the historically high levels of industrial activity in the Runcorn area.

chemical industry; environmental exposure; kidney diseases; mercury; mortality; solvents

Abbreviations: ADMS, Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System; SMR, standardized mortality ratio


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.