Status of Antioxidant Enzymes and Mercury Levels Between Traditional Gold Miners and Non Miners

Background Gold mining is traditionally processed by the method of amalgamation, that is a process using mercury to bind to gold. Mercury is free radical able to increase the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), inhibit enzymes, interfere with the metabolism of the body antioxidants, especially superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Low levels of antioxidant enzymes can be used as a parameter indicating that level of free radicals in the body is high. Low levels of antioxidant enzymes is caused by the reduction of thiol group on the antioxidant enzyme protein as it is bound by mercury, because these compounds have a strong affinity for thiol clusters. This study is aimed at determining whether there is difference of the status of antioxidant enzymes between non-miners and traditional gold miners. Methods Observational design used cross sectional design. The samples were 30 non miners and 32 miners, sampling technique was simple random. Status antioxidants including SOD level, catalase, and GPx were measured by Elisa method. Level of mercury was measured by method of Mercury Analyser Cold Vapour. Data were analyzed by t- independence test due to the normal data distribution. Results The mean level of mercury in non-miners was 40, 89 g/L and that of miners was 104, 49 g/L, the level of SOD of non miners was 365 U/mL and that of the miners was 219 U/mL, the catalase level of non miner was 5, 48 U/mL, and that of miners was 3, 35 U/mL, GPx level of non miners was 90, 85 U/mL, and that of miners was 51, 88 U/mL. The analysis results showed that p-value was 0.000. Conclusions There are significant differences in the status of antioxidant enzymes and mercury levels in both groups of miners and non traditional gold miners