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INTRODUCTION:In connection with request and financial assistance of Swiss Development Agency ‘’Mercury exposureand health impact assessment study among small scale miners in mercury free technology, wasconducted by researchers of Toxicology division of NCPH.GOAL:To determine mercury exposure level in biological samples of local small scale miners from mercury freetechnology introduced area. To reveal chronic mercury intoxicated patients,MATERIALS AND METHODS:Totally 147 artisanal miners from 33 cooperatives for small scale mining from Bayan-Îvoo soum ofBayankhongor, Bornuur sum of Tuv, Bayangol, Mandal and Tunkhel sum of Selenge province areparticipated in this study and the study was performed by cross sectional study methods during April toDecember, 2014.Over all 147 participants were in the first part of study, 60.5% out of 147 (89 participants) were in secondparts, and another 35.4% (52 people) were participated to the third parts of study. The participants wereundergone in to toxicological, dermatological and neurological examinations and the WHO guidance formercury exposure determination was followed in this study.RESULTS:On the results of all testing we revealed that there were 2 cases of chronic mercury intoxicated patientsfrom each Bayangol Bornuur soum, 2 from Mandal soum, and 3 from Bayanovoo soum.Overall 7 patientswere diagnosed as chronic mercury intoxicated and it comprised 4.7%of (n=147) all involved participants.We have observed that average height of total medical examination number was (2.9) in Bornuur soum.It indicated that there will have higher number of patients would exist in Bornuur soum than others.Ourstudy result has shown that neurological symptoms like tremor and imbalance were more diagnosedamong participants from Mandal and Bayngol soums. It implies that the health of the small scale minersfrom this soum more affected and needed to be investigating further.CONCLUSIONS:Mercury is still being used among artisanal gold miners even thoughit is still illegal. Further medicalevaluation and assistance needed to be taken for newly diagnosed 7 patients.
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BACKGROUND:Nano is a key technology to bring accelerated development in science, economy and business in 21stcentury. Besides lots of advantages contained in nanoproducts, cytotoxic effects on human and environmentmay occur due to their extreme small size and large surface area and it promotes chemical reaction andactivates reactive oxygen species in the cell. In the last few decades, human and environment exposureof nanomaterials have been increasing, but research papers related to nanomaterial toxicity have beenpoor.GOAL: Determination of nanomaterial toxicity in medical applicationMATERIALS AND METHODS:Totally 21 nanomaterials collected in this study including imported nano-medicines, disinfectantspray, cleaning solution and experimental nanomaterial produced in Mongolia. The particle sizesof nanomaterialswere determined by Cross correlation analysis and X-Ray diffraction analysis, andmutagenicity was determined by Ames test.RESULTS:The particle sizes of nanomaterials in 5 of 21 were measured at the range of 1 – 100nm and 5 of 21nanomaterials were determined as mutagenic by Ames test.CONCLUSION:Ingredients and production methods can be one of causes of nanomaterial toxicity. Therefore, morespecific methods are needed to reveal cytotoxicity of nanomaterials in the future.