Hair mercury levels and food consumption in residents from the Pearl River Delta: South China

Shao, Dingding; Kang, Yuan; Cheng, Zhang; Wang, Hongsheng; Huang, Minjuan; Wu, Shengchun; Chen, Kunci; Wong, Ming Hung

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.08.059

Cited by 58 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These led to the highest of mercury concentration being unable to be correlated to particular kind of work since the presence of mercury in hair specimen is strongly attributed to environmental exposure, lifestyle, and dietary habits [29,30]. Dietary habits, especially fish consumption, is considered to be the main source of mercury exposure particularly in the form of methyl mercury [31,32]. The occupational exposure of mercury should be further studied by giving more attention to more details associated with consumption patterns, lifestyles, living environment, and medical status.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Heavy Metals on Occupationally Exposed Workers from Hair Analysis

et al. 2017

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The use of human hair as a tool in assessing changes and abnormalities in human bodies has been increasing for last decades since it may reflect the health status or environmental condition of habitation or working place of individuals as well as population groups. Compared to other body tissue or fluids, hair provides an ease of elemental analysis especially in reflecting the long-term exposure. This research was conducted to determine the elemental content especially heavy metals, since they are bioaccumulated in human body organs and impact human health, in hair of workshop workers and traffic services officers as exposed groups and its comparison with control group and references data for assessing of occupational exposure. Thirty-five automotive workshop workers and 32 traffic services officers' hair specimens were collected in Bandung, while hair specimens of the control group were collected from 43 healthy individuals. The elemental concentrations in hair specimen were analyzed using neutron activation analysis (NAA) for mercury and chromium, and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) for lead and arsenic. The accuracy of the method was evaluated using GBW 07601 human hair certified reference material (CRM) and it was found to give good results in accordance with the certificate values. It was found that chromium, lead, and arsenic hair concentration in exposed groups (0.88, 10.7, and 0.051 mg/kg, respectively) were higher than in control group (0.27, 4.52, and 0.045 mg/kg, respectively), while mercury hair concentration of traffic services officers were higher than control group but mercury hair concentration of automotive workshop workers were lower than in control group (1.41 mg/kg). The t-test statistical results shown that mercury concentrations in one exposed group did not differ significantly from the control, but other exposed groups showed otherwise. The level of mercury in hair is strongly attributed not only to environmental exposure, but also to lifestyle and dietary habits, while t-test statistical results of chromium and lead differ significantly with p value < 0.05. These results indicate that heavy metal hair concentrations were well quantified to show the abnormalities of elemental concentration in human hair for evaluating the occupational exposure.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Heavy Metals on Occupationally Exposed Workers from Hair Analysis

et al. 2017

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“…Gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) is very stable with a residence time between 0.5 and 2 years and Hg deposited in rice paddies can be readily transformed into the more toxic organic species, methylmercury (MeHg) . The burden of mercury toxicity to ASGM communities is compounded by the bioaccumulation of Hg in food (Holmes et al, 2009, Shao et al, 2013. Meng et al (2011) and Li et al (2010) discovered elevated MeHg in rice grown around tailings contaminated Hg is more 10-100 times higher than other locally grown plantation.…”

Section: Asgm Status In Indonesiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meng et al (2011) and Li et al (2010) discovered elevated MeHg in rice grown around tailings contaminated Hg is more 10-100 times higher than other locally grown plantation. Shao et al (2013) stated that MeHg can accumulate in hair during growth (1 cm per month), and hair MeHg concentration can possibly reflect longer-term MeHg exposure. In addition, most of the previous studies reported that MeHg constituted 80% of THg in hair and the major exposure route was through fish consumption (Molina et al, 2015).…”

Section: Asgm Status In Indonesiamentioning

confidence: 99%

ASGM status in West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia

Krisnayanti¹

2018

J.Degrade.Min.Land Manage.

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Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) obviously contributes to serious environmental and health issue for miners, nearby populations, and larger community when the use of mercury (Hg) occurs. Mercury amalgamation is used as a gold recovery technique by 10-12 million ASGM miners around the world and a predicted around 1000 tonnes of mercury are discharged into the environment every year as a result of poor mining practices. Exposure to mercury can cause serious health effects for future generation, and miners and their families are vulnarable group to expose with mercury vapor and methyl mercury contaminated food in ASGM areas, resulting in increase of levels of mercury in human specimens. Thus, investigating the the effects of mercury on the environment and people health are urgently necessary for developing a better solution to eliminate further mercury contamination to environment in West Nusa Tenggara (WNT) Province. A field survey had been conducted for this research in two main ASGM spots in WNT Province: Sekotong-Lombok island and Taliwang-Sumbawa island. As part of the study, an initial health survey and socio-economic of workers/miners was conducted. Volunteer participants at sampling locations across Sekotong-Lombok and TaliwangSumbawa (exposed; indirect exposed; non exposed groups) answered a questionnaire, and allowed the sampling of hair for subsequent analysis. The ore, tailing, plants and soil samples were also collected for investigating Hg concentration on the substances. The results found that the impact of ASGM on increasing economic activity leading to jobs, income and opportunities for social development is positive. However, there is risk of contamination in soil and plants environment through mining activity and high Hg concentration discovered in human body in a short time of ASGM activity. The environmental sustainability of mining can be better regulated within legalised areas. Environmental monitoring will define unacceptable risk and allow for advanced implementation of remedial measures before an uncontrollable disaster occurs.

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“…Liang et al (2013) indicated the relationships between Hg levels in Hong Kong residents and their seafood consumption. A study revealed that human hair Hg levels collected from fish farming areas scattered around the PRD, were significantly correlated with frequency of fish consumption (Shao et al, 2013). Being neurotoxins, the high hair Hg (and very often Pb) levels are linked with higher fish consumption rates of autistic children (Ko et al, 2012).…”

Section: Environmental Pollution and Food Safetymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycle food wastes into high quality fish feeds for safe and quality fish production

Wong

Choi

et al. 2016

Environmental Pollution

Self Cite

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The amount of food waste generated from modern societies is increasing, which has imposed a tremendous pressure on its treatment and disposal. Food waste should be treated as a valuable resource rather than waste, and turning it into fish feeds would be a viable alternative. This paper attempts to review the feasibility of using food waste to formulate feed pellets to culture a few freshwater fish species, such as grass carp, grey mullet, and tilapia, under polyculture mode (growing different species in the same pond). These species occupy different ecological niches, with different feeding modes (i.e., herbivorous, filter feeding, etc.), and therefore all the nutrients derived from the food waste could be efficiently recycled within the ecosystem. The problems facing environmental pollution and fish contamination; the past and present situation of inland fish culture (focusing on South China); upgrade of food waste based feed pellets by adding enzymes, vitamin-mineral premix, probiotics (yeast), prebiotics, and Chinese medicinal herbs into feeds; and potential health risks of fish cultivated by food waste based pellets are discussed, citing some local examples. It can be concluded that appropriate portions of different types of food waste could satisfy basic nutritional requirements of lower trophic level fish species such as grass carp and tilapia. Upgrading the fish pellets by adding different supplements mentioned above could further elevated the quality of feeds, leading to higher growth rates, and enhanced immunity of fish. Health risk assessments based on the major environmental contaminants (mercury, PAHs and DDTs) in fish flesh showed that fish fed food waste based pellets are safer for consumption, when compared with those fed commercial feed pellets.

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Hair mercury levels and food consumption in residents from the Pearl River Delta: South China

Cited by 58 publications

References 23 publications

Assessment of Heavy Metals on Occupationally Exposed Workers from Hair Analysis

Assessment of Heavy Metals on Occupationally Exposed Workers from Hair Analysis

ASGM status in West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia

Recycle food wastes into high quality fish feeds for safe and quality fish production

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