 nine children and their mother were exposed to vapors of metallic mercury . 
 the source of the exposure appears to have been a 6-oz vial of mercury taken from a neighbor 's home . 
 the neighbor reportedly operated a business preparing mercury - filled amulets for practitioners of the afro - caribbean religion santeria . at diagnosis , urinary mercury levels in the children ranged from 61 to 1,213 microg / g creatinine , with a geometric mean of 214.3 microg / m creatinine . 
 all of the children were asymptomatic . to prevent development of neurotoxicity 
 , we treated the children with oral meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid ( dmsa ) . during chelation , 
 the geometric mean urine level rose initially by 268% to 573.2 microg mercury / g creatinine ( p<0.0005 ) . at the 6-week follow - up examination after treatment , the geometric mean 
 urine mercury level had fallen to 102.1 microg / g creatinine , which was 17.8% of the geometric mean level observed during treatment ( p<0.0005 ) and 47.6% of the original baseline level ( p<0.001 ) . 
 thus , oral chelation with dmsa produced a significant mercury diuresis in these children . 
 we observed no adverse side effects of treatment . 
 dmsa appears to be an effective and safe chelating agent for treatment of pediatric overexposure to metallic mercury.imagesfigure 1 
Images