Pereira Inês, Lamas António, Henriques Ferreira Inês
Internal Medicine Department, Unidade Local de Saúde de Santo António, Porto, PRT.
Cureus. 2025 Jan 30;17(1):e78252. doi: 10.7759/cureus.78252. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Mercury poisoning in the workplace has long been recognized as an occupational disease for several decades. Elemental (or metallic) mercury can cause intoxication, mainly through inhalation, affecting workers in mining operations and goldsmiths engaged in gold recovery processes. We present the case of a professional goldsmith, a smoker with a history of narcolepsy and catalepsy. He experienced an occupational accident resulting in respiratory and mucocutaneous symptoms. The confirmation of the diagnosis by mercury measurements on the blood/urine prompted the start of chelation treatment, which led to favorable progression with symptom resolution. This case underscores the importance of public awareness to prevent mercury poisoning and emphasizes the need for healthcare providers to promptly recognize such occupational health risks.
几十年来，工作场所汞中毒一直被公认为一种职业病。元素汞（或金属汞）可导致中毒，主要通过吸入，影响采矿作业工人和从事黄金回收过程的金匠。我们报告一例职业金匠的病例，该患者有发作性睡病和僵住症病史且吸烟。他经历了一起职业事故，出现了呼吸道和皮肤黏膜症状。通过血液/尿液汞检测确诊后启动了螯合治疗，症状得到缓解，病情进展良好。该病例强调了公众预防汞中毒意识的重要性，并强调医疗服务提供者及时识别此类职业健康风险的必要性。
