Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences, sa.28, ss.655-659, 1998 (Scopus)
Abstract: The aim of this study was to
determine the effects of silver mining on
individuals living in Gümüş, a province of
Kütahya in Turkey, which is located near a
silver mine. For this purpose, two groups of
subjects were chosen. The first group
consisted of 59 people (n=59) above the age
of 30 who had been potentially exposed to
silver. The second group, which formed the
control group of the study, were the same
age as the first group (p>0.05) but had not
been exposed to silver manufacturing, and
lacked a history of silver medication. Blood,
urine, hair, soil, rock, water, plant and cereal
samples were collected and were analyzed for
total silver content by Graphite Furnace
Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. Statistical
analyses were conducted using the “t test”,
“chi square test” or “pearson correlaction
test”. For the subjects, the mean
concentration of silver in the blood was
11.356 µg/L, in the urine it was 2.619 µg/L,
and in the hair it was 2.592 µg/g. The same
values for the control group were 6.059
µg/L, 1.700 µg/L, and 0.980 µg/g
respectively. The values of the subjects were
significantly higher than the ones in the
control group (p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001
respectively). In addition to these findings,
the mean concentrations of silver in the soil
and rocks of the village were 3265.6 µg/g,
7095.5 µg/g respectively, which were
significantly higher than the control group’s
means (p<0.001, p<0.001).
Both samples of water from the village and
the control area had no silver content (0
µg/L). The mean concentrations of silver in
the cereals and plants from the village were
0.105 µg/g and 3.589 µg/g respectively,
which were significantly higher than the
control samples (p<0.001, p<0.001). None
of the subjects had symptoms of argyria, but
most of them had significantly higher systolic
blood pressure than the control subjects
(p<0.001). The results of our study indicate
that generalized argyria is unlikely to occur in
individuals who live near a silver mine,
although they have high levels of silver in
their blood, urine and hair.