Mercury Toxicity and Its Treatment Options

Exposure to heavy metals has become a common phenomenon due to their environmental pervasiveness. We have focused on mercury in this article keeping in view current concerns related to human exposure and available literature. Mercury is listed by the International Program of Chemical Safety as one of the most dangerous elements. Mercury intoxication particularly neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity is widely known. Despite many years of research we are still far away from effective treatment against toxicity caused due to heavy metals exposure. This review attempts a comprehensive account of recent developments in the research on heavy metal poisoning particularly the role of oxidative stress/ free radicals in the toxic manifestations. The recent strategies for the treatment with chelating agents and a possible beneficial role of antioxidants supplementation to achieve the optimum effects show that supplementation of antioxidants along-with a chelating agent prove to be a better treatment regimen than monotherapy with chelating agents.