Hair Mercury Levels and Their Relationship with Seafood Consumption among Preschool Children in Shanghai

Mercury is a global pollutant. Children are vulnerable to environmental toxicants. Seafood consumption is a major source of methylmercury exposure. In order to ascertain children’s mercury exposure levels and study their relationship with seafood consumption, we conducted a cross-sectional study among preschool children in Shanghai.

Mercury in aquatic fauna contamination:A systematic review on its dynamics and potential health risks

Mercury is an important pollutant,released into aquatic ecosystems both naturally and by anthropogenic action.This element is transferred to aquatic organisms in different ways,causing potential health risks.In addition,mercury can be accumulated by humans,especially through the consumption of contaminated food.This systematic review aims to present mercury pathways,the major routes through which this element reaches the aquatic environment and its transformations until becoming available to living animals,leading to bioaccumulation and biomagnification phenomena.The key biotic and abiotic factors affecting such processes,the impact of mercury on animal and human health and the issue of seafood consumption as a source of chronic mercury contamination are also addressed.A total of 101 articles were retrieved from a standardized search on three databases(PubMed,Emabse,and Web of Science),in addition to 28 other studies not found on these databases but considered fundamental to this review(totaling 129 articles).Both biotic and abiotic factors display fundamental importance in mediating mercurial dynamics,i.e.,muscle tropism,and salinity,respectively.Consequently,mercurial contamination in aquatic environments affects animal health,especially the risk of extinction species and also on human health,with methylmercury the main mercury species responsible for acute and chronic symptomatology.

Mercury in alpine fish from four rivers in the Tibetan Plateau

As a global pollutant, high levels of mercury（Hg） have been found in remote ecosystem due to the long range atmospheric transport. In this study, a total of 60 fish samples were collected from four rivers across the Tibetan Plateau to study the accumulation of Hg in remote and high-altitude aquatic environment. The total Hg（THg） and methylmercury（MeHg） in fish muscles ranged from 11 to 2097 ng/g dry weight（dw）（average： 819 ng/g dw）and from 14 to 1960 ng/g dw（average： 756 ng/g dw）, respectively. Significantly positive linear relationships were observed between the THg（r = 0.591, p 〈 0.01, n = 36） and MeHg concentrations（r = 0.473, p 〈 0.01, n = 36） with the trophic level of fish from Lhasa River,suggesting trophic transfer and biomagnification of Hg in this aquatic ecosystem. Moreover,the THg levels in fish had significantly positive correlations with the length（r = 0.316,p 〈 0.05, n = 60） and weight（r = 0.271, p 〈 0.05, n = 60） of fish. The high levels of Hg were attributed to the slow growth and long lifespan of the fish under this sterile and cold environment. Risk assessment revealed that the consumption of Oxygymnocypris stewartii,Schizothorax macropogon, Schizothorax waltoni, Schizopygopsis younghusbandi and Schizothorax o＇connori would lead to a high exposure to Me Hg.