Therefore, the effect of ALA and glutathione may show only a trend or an apparent effect and are not comparable to DMPS and DMSA. Although the actual effect of a chelator or heavy metal-complexing agent cannot be determined in a three-hour time period, and acute doses of 10 mg/kg of inorganic mercury would be considered highly toxic in an adult human, there is evidence from this study that ALA is a less efficient binder of inorganic mercury than the recognized chelating agents, DMSA and DMPS. All of the substances were used at a concentration of 10 mM, a level difficult to reach with ALA oral supplementation.