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Life-term Effects of Mercury, Methyl Mercury, and Nine Other Trace Metals on Mice1

Henry A. Schroeder2 and Marian Mitchener

Department of Physiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301

To evaluate recondite effects of certain trace elements, 1,557 mice were exposed in groups of 36 to 54 of each sex to soluble salts of lead, nickel, vanadium, and titanium, a repetition of previous experiments; to beryllium, barium, and aluminum, to inorganic and methyl mercury; and to boron and tungsten. Exposures were in low doses and for life in an environment controlled as to contaminating trace elements. The diet was low in trace elements, and those studied were added to drinking water. There were three groups of controls. Males given vanadium were somewhat larger than their controls. Methyl mercury at 1 ppm increased body weights of both males and females, whereas at 5 ppm, it decreased growth and was toxic; mercuric chloride had no demonstrable effect. No element was tumorigenic, but aluminum and vanadium had slight effects (P < 0.05) in females. Longevity was increased in mice fed nickel and vanadium and in the survivors of those initially fed 5 ppm methyl mercury and later 1 ppm. Mercuric chloride was nontoxic. These studies provide guidelines for the relative toxicities of some common metals when ingested.

KEY WORDS: • life-term studies • methyl mercury • beryllium • barium • aluminum • boron • tungsten titanium • lead • nickel • vanadium • survival

1 Supported by Public Health Service Research Grant ES 00699-15AI, Ciba-Gelgy Corporation, and Cooper Laboratories, Inc.

2 Present address: 9 Belmont Avenue, Brattleboro, Vt. 05301.

Manuscript received 6 September 1974.




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Copyright © 1975 by American Society for Nutrition