New Delhi, Oct 21: Alcohol consumers may face more health risk when they are exposed to regions polluted with mercury, according to a study. The conclusion was drawn by scientists, from the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who studied the combined effect of alcohol and various metal ions on the mice liver tissue.

Liver injury is the important damage caused by excessive drinking. Alcohol can easily produce free radicals which generate injury to organisms, the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Biology, said.

They used lipid peroxidation, a process mediated by free radicals, as a measure of free radical injury in mice liver, it said.

Results indicated the enhancing effect of Mecury ions on alcohol induced lipid peroxidation, the study said adding a positive correlation between concentration of mercury ions with the rate of lipid peroxidation in presence of alcohol was observed.
It indicated that mercury ions aggravated lipid peroxidation induced by alcohol, the study said.

The scientists said that mercury in an important environmental pollutant. In the contemporary society, people have to absorb various metal ions unconciously from eating, breathing, drinking and other ways every day.
Bureau Report