Introduction: Heavy metals, like many other chemical elements, are naturally present in the environment. The health effects of cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg) have been widely documented independently. Few studies have focused on evaluating exposure. combined with these metals, therefore, the presence and origin of such substances must be determined to reduce sources of exposure. In some territories of the country, mining has been promoted as an essential work, increasing contact with these metals that, associated with agricultural activity, facilitate the exposure of the population to mixtures of chemical substances, which occurs in the department of Caldas el which has municipalities with work in mining and agriculture. Objective: Determine the exposure to mercury and cadmium in the environmentally and occupationally exposed population of the municipality of Aranzazu (Caldas) in Colombia. Methodology: Descriptive cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic sample of 100 people from the population of Aranzazu, of which 48 were environmentally exposed and 55 occupationally exposed. Measurements of heavy metals Mercury and Cadmium were taken in biological samples (hair) and in environmental samples (water and fish). Additionally, a socio-demographic characterization was carried out, and the work history and habits of the study population were investigated. Absolute frequency distributions and percentages were constructed and central tendency and dispersion statistics were calculated according to the nature of the variables according to the type of exposure. Likewise, summary statistics were calculated for cadmium and mercury concentrations and compared in the two exposure groups through the Mann Whitney test. Results: 103 people with an average age of 44 years entered the study. It was found that 68% of participants presented levels above the permissible limit value for cadmium in hair (0.022 µg/g) and in mercury only one individual was found exceeding the reference value of 1 µg/g (1.0%). For water the average concentration of cadmium was 0.0008 mg/L and for mercury 0.000024 µg/L. Through the Mann Whitney test, significant differences are evident in cadmium concentrations in hair by sex (p=0.002) and in mercury by fish consumption (p=0.001). Conclusion: Although the study population does not have occupational exposure to cadmium and/or mercury, since their main source of economic resources is agricultural activities, it was determined that they present detectable values of both metals in the hair samples, which suggests environmental exposure.
