revised final - Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ...

MERCURY 153
2. HEALTH EFFECTS
increased incidence of structural aberrations, smokers were not identified, it was unclear whether chromatid
and chromosome gaps were excluded from the evaluation, and significant effects were obtained only from
lymphocyte cultures initiated several days after collection. The more reliable approach of initiating cultures
on the day of collection did not yield significant results. Similarly, the evidence of aneuploidy is suspect.
Considering the age of the subjects (54–89 years in the control group and 47–84 years in the exposure
group), the average incidence of aneuploidy in the control (1.8%) and exposed (2.8%) groups was lower
than would be expected, according to results indicating that aneuploidy in humans increases with age
(Cimino et al. 1986). Skerfving et al. (1970) also reported that a significant (p