Mercury: Contaminated Seed in Iraq
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This page is maintained by: Dr Rick Leah, Jones Building, School of Biological Sciences

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Original material is Copyright University of Liverpool, 2003, 2004, 2005

Methyl- and ethylmercury poisonings occurred in Iraq following consumption of seed grain that had been treated with fungicides containing these alkylmercury compounds. The first outbreaks were caused by ethylmercury, and occurred in 1956 and 1959-1960, and about 1000 people were adversely affected. The second outbreak was caused by methylmercury and occurred in 1972. The number of people admitted to the hospital from the second outbreak with symptoms of poisoning has been estimated to be approximately 6,500, with 459 fatalities reported. Imported mercury-treated seed grains arrived after the planting season and were subsequently used as grain to make into flour that was baked into bread. Unlike the long-term exposures in Japan, the epidemic of methylmercury poisoning in Iraq was short in duration, but the magnitude of the exposure was high. Because many of the people exposed to methylmercury in this way lived in small villages in very rural areas (and some were nomads), the total number of people exposed to these mercury-contaminated seed grains is not known.

Early assessment of the risk from methyl mercury consumption was based on this incident but this has now been overtaken by the results obtained from the Faroes and the Seychelles