DOHA: Exposure to mercury, which is a common component of many items of common use, can lead to serious health hazards. And chronic mercury poisoning can affect the kidneys and the nervous system, a doctor said yesterday.
Dr Hassan Effar, acting head of occupational health at the National Health Authority (NHA), said the most common ways in which people can be affected by mercury are breathing in contaminated air, eating contaminated fish and using mercury-based dental fillings.
Effar was speaking to The Peninsula after addressing a news conference convened at the Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR) yesterday to announce the launch of an awareness campaign about the risks the substances which contain mercury pose to people.
During a two-year project launched recently, the SCENR will collect information about mercury usage in various sectors, including health, industry and education, and define a baseline for its use to reduce risks.
Present at the briefing were Mohamed Al Ebrahim, head of chemical management section at the SCENR, and Dr Wasif Alam, NHA's consultant at the SCENR.
Al Ebrahim said the project is being carried out in cooperation with the UN Environment Porgramme. The preparations to launch the project began some two months ago, he added. Questionnaires will be distributed to collect relevant information.
Alam told this newspaper later that sometimes a patient suddenly faces memory loss and doctors attribute it to ageing, while the actual reason could be over-exposure to mercury.
Jewellery, thermometer, flasks and some devices used by pathological laboratories are some of the items which have mercury content, he said.
© The Peninsula 2007
