Abstract

found that about 7% of miners showed gingivitis, and only two of the miners from this 7% used dental amalgam. Sekotong is the first artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) area in West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, where mercury is used as a chemical binding to recover gold (amalgamation system), dating from mid-2009. The amalgamation system is used in hundreds of ASGM sites around Indonesia as well. Because of the occupational exposure of gold miners, we are sure that the main route of mercury exposure came more from mercury inhalation during the smelting process rather than fish or nutritional consumption. In a prior study, most of the miners and people around the mining area had symptoms of respiratory disorders. 2 Addressing your concerns about how seafood/ fish consumption might affect the mercury toxicity of miners, 3 it was apparent that fish consumption is high in the Sekotong population, as the location of the ASGM is on the seashore where fish is consumed on a daily basis. From our questionnaires, we determined that miners and nonminers had no differences in diet. The fish consumption rate between the miner and non-miner samples were relatively similar, as in other communities in the research area. However, the research findings showed that the health parameters of the two different mercury exposure groups showed significant differences in all health parameters. As a result, we were able to ignore co-factors such as fish consumption that might affect our research findings as you stated. Even though Krisnayanti et al. (2012) Response to "Comment on 'Effect of Mercury Exposure on Renal Function and Hematological Parameters among Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Miners at Sekotong, West Lombok, Indonesia'" Competing Interests.

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