Abstract
As a biological indicator of the absorption of trace metals and other toxic materials, salivary fluid has been largely ignored by the industrial hygienist. Yet this fluid, readily obtainable from the parotid glands in a clean, standardized, and reproducible manner, may prove to be one of the most useful of biological monitors. Analytical determinations of the mercury contents of concurrently obtained specimens of blood, urine, and saliva (parotid), from two groups of occupationally exposed personnel, showed an excellent and highly significant correlation between the blood and salivary concentrations of mercury. On the basis of the ratio of blood to salivary concentrations observed in one plant, predictions of the blood concentrations of mercury were made for personnel in the other plant, using the salivary mercury contents alone. These predictions differed on the average by about 20% from the actual values.
