Plasma mercury levels in Hong Kong residents: In relation to fish consumption

Peng Liang; Yan Yan Qin; Chan Zhang; Jin Zhang; Yucheng Cao; Sheng Chun Wu; Chris K.C. Wong; Ming H. Wong

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.049

Plasma mercury levels in Hong Kong residents: In relation to fish consumption

Peng Liang, Yan Yan Qin, Chan Zhang, Jin Zhang, Yucheng Cao, Sheng Chun Wu, Chris K.C. Wong, Ming H. Wong^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Biology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mercury exposure is of particular concern since mercury is a neurotoxin and the developing fetus is most sensitive to its adverse effect. Human blood is routinely used as an indicator for the evaluation of human exposure to Hg. To investigate Hg species in human plasma for Hong Kong residents and the relationship between fish consumption and Hg species in plasma, 151 plasma samples were analyzed for Hg species. The mean values of total Hg (THg) and methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentration in plasma were 0.62 and 0.28. μg/L, respectively. No significant differences were observed between females and males as well as among age groups. Fish consumption rate was significantly positively correlated with MeHg concentrations in plasma, which demonstrated that plasma could be a biomarker for human MeHg exposure.Two methods were used to estimate human MeHg exposure. One was based on fish MeHg content and fish consumption rate (EDI_Fish), another was employed by converting MeHg concentration in blood to MeHg exposure amount (EDI_Blood). A significant positive correlation was observed between EDI_Blood and EDI_Fish, and no significant difference was found between EDI_Blood and EDI_Fish. These results demonstrated that fish consumption was the major source of MeHg for humans.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1225-1229
Number of pages	5
Journal	Science of the Total Environment
Volume	463-464
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.049
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2013

Scopus Subject Areas

Environmental Engineering
Environmental Chemistry
Waste Management and Disposal
Pollution

User-Defined Keywords

Blood plasma
Human exposure
Methylmercury

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.049

Cite this

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title = "Plasma mercury levels in Hong Kong residents: In relation to fish consumption",

abstract = "Mercury exposure is of particular concern since mercury is a neurotoxin and the developing fetus is most sensitive to its adverse effect. Human blood is routinely used as an indicator for the evaluation of human exposure to Hg. To investigate Hg species in human plasma for Hong Kong residents and the relationship between fish consumption and Hg species in plasma, 151 plasma samples were analyzed for Hg species. The mean values of total Hg (THg) and methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentration in plasma were 0.62 and 0.28. μg/L, respectively. No significant differences were observed between females and males as well as among age groups. Fish consumption rate was significantly positively correlated with MeHg concentrations in plasma, which demonstrated that plasma could be a biomarker for human MeHg exposure.Two methods were used to estimate human MeHg exposure. One was based on fish MeHg content and fish consumption rate (EDIFish), another was employed by converting MeHg concentration in blood to MeHg exposure amount (EDIBlood). A significant positive correlation was observed between EDIBlood and EDIFish, and no significant difference was found between EDIBlood and EDIFish. These results demonstrated that fish consumption was the major source of MeHg for humans.",

keywords = "Blood plasma, Human exposure, Methylmercury",

author = "Peng Liang and Qin, {Yan Yan} and Chan Zhang and Jin Zhang and Yucheng Cao and Wu, {Sheng Chun} and Wong, {Chris K.C.} and Wong, {Ming H.}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors thank Ms. Sue Fung for improving the manuscript. Financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LQ12D03001 ), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang A&F University ( 2011FK003 ), the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) ( HKBU 1/07C ) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council is gratefully acknowledged.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.049",

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T1 - Plasma mercury levels in Hong Kong residents

T2 - In relation to fish consumption

AU - Liang, Peng

AU - Qin, Yan Yan

AU - Zhang, Chan

AU - Zhang, Jin

AU - Cao, Yucheng

AU - Wu, Sheng Chun

AU - Wong, Chris K.C.

AU - Wong, Ming H.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank Ms. Sue Fung for improving the manuscript. Financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LQ12D03001 ), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang A&F University ( 2011FK003 ), the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) ( HKBU 1/07C ) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2013/10/1

Y1 - 2013/10/1

N2 - Mercury exposure is of particular concern since mercury is a neurotoxin and the developing fetus is most sensitive to its adverse effect. Human blood is routinely used as an indicator for the evaluation of human exposure to Hg. To investigate Hg species in human plasma for Hong Kong residents and the relationship between fish consumption and Hg species in plasma, 151 plasma samples were analyzed for Hg species. The mean values of total Hg (THg) and methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentration in plasma were 0.62 and 0.28. μg/L, respectively. No significant differences were observed between females and males as well as among age groups. Fish consumption rate was significantly positively correlated with MeHg concentrations in plasma, which demonstrated that plasma could be a biomarker for human MeHg exposure.Two methods were used to estimate human MeHg exposure. One was based on fish MeHg content and fish consumption rate (EDIFish), another was employed by converting MeHg concentration in blood to MeHg exposure amount (EDIBlood). A significant positive correlation was observed between EDIBlood and EDIFish, and no significant difference was found between EDIBlood and EDIFish. These results demonstrated that fish consumption was the major source of MeHg for humans.

AB - Mercury exposure is of particular concern since mercury is a neurotoxin and the developing fetus is most sensitive to its adverse effect. Human blood is routinely used as an indicator for the evaluation of human exposure to Hg. To investigate Hg species in human plasma for Hong Kong residents and the relationship between fish consumption and Hg species in plasma, 151 plasma samples were analyzed for Hg species. The mean values of total Hg (THg) and methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentration in plasma were 0.62 and 0.28. μg/L, respectively. No significant differences were observed between females and males as well as among age groups. Fish consumption rate was significantly positively correlated with MeHg concentrations in plasma, which demonstrated that plasma could be a biomarker for human MeHg exposure.Two methods were used to estimate human MeHg exposure. One was based on fish MeHg content and fish consumption rate (EDIFish), another was employed by converting MeHg concentration in blood to MeHg exposure amount (EDIBlood). A significant positive correlation was observed between EDIBlood and EDIFish, and no significant difference was found between EDIBlood and EDIFish. These results demonstrated that fish consumption was the major source of MeHg for humans.

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KW - Methylmercury

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Plasma mercury levels in Hong Kong residents: In relation to fish consumption

Abstract

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