Ethylmercury

Identifiers

CAS Number

21687-36-5^N

3D model (Jmol)

CHEBI:33204^Y

5247^Y

InChI=1S/C2H5.Hg/c1-2;/h1H2,2H3;/q;+1^Y

Key: MJOUBOKSWBMNGQ-UHFFFAOYSA-N^Y

SMILES

CC[Hg+]

Properties

Chemical formula

C₂H₅Hg⁺

Molar mass

229.65 g/mol

Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).

(what is ^YN ?)

Infobox references

Ethylmercury (sometimes ethyl mercury) is a cation composed of an ethyl group bound to a mercury(II) centre; its chemical formula is C₂H₅Hg⁺. Ethylmercury is sometimes used as a generic term to describe organomercury compounds which include ethylmercury such as ethylmercury chloride and ethylmercury urea.

Ethylmercury is one of the metabolites of thiomersal, which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Thiomersal is the ethylmercury-releasing compound sodium ethylmercuric thiosalicylate, C₉H₉HgNaO₂S.

Unlike methylmercury, ethylmercury has not been found to bioaccumulate. The toxicity of ethylmercury is not well studied - exposure standards based on methylmercury (such as those currently recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency) have not been demonstrated to be equivalent for ethylmercury. Ethylmercury clears from blood with a half-life of seven to 10 days in adults. Ethylmercury is eliminated from the brain in about 14 days in infant monkeys. Risk assessment for effects on the nervous system have been made by extrapolating from dose-response relationships for methylmercury. Methylmercury and ethylmercury distribute to all body tissues, crossing the blood–brain barrier and the placental barrier, and ethylmercury also moves freely throughout the body. Concerns based on extrapolations from methylmercury caused thiomersal to be removed from U.S. childhood vaccines, starting in 1999. Since then, it has been found that ethylmercury is eliminated from the body and the brain significantly faster than methylmercury, so the late-1990s risk assessments appear to be overly conservative. Though inorganic mercury metabolized from ethylmercury has a much longer half-life in the brain, at least 120 days, it appears to be much less toxic than the inorganic mercury produced from mercury vapor, for reasons not yet understood.

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