Mercury in the environment and riverside population in the Madeira River Basin, Amazon, Brazil

Bastos, Wanderley Rodrigues; Gomes, João; Oliveira, Ronaldo Cavalcante; Almeida, Renato Paes de; Nascimento, Elisabete Lourdes do; Bernardi, José Vicente Elias; Lacerda, Luiz Drude de; Silveira, Ene Glória da; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang C.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2005.09.048

Cited by 143 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…However, core sediment samples from floodplains show increasing mercury levels towards the surface, indicating that mercury levels in the rivers of Suriname have mainly an anthropogenic origin. These results are in agreement with results for the Madeira River in Brazil and the Mazaruni River in Guyana (Miller et al 2003;Bastos et al 2006).…”

Section: Mercury Levels In Pristine Areas In Surinamesupporting

confidence: 92%

Mercury Levels in Pristine and Gold Mining Impacted Aquatic Ecosystems of Suriname, South America

Ouboter

Landburg

Quik³

et al. 2012

AMBIO

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Mercury levels in sediment and predatory fish were measured for 53 localities in Suriname. The average mercury level in bottom sediment surpassed the Canadian standard for sediment in most localities, except the coastal plains. Of the predatory fish, 41 % had a mercury level above the European Union standard for human consumption of 0.5 lg g -1 . Highest mercury levels were found in fish from the Brokopondo Reservoir and from the Upper Coppename River. High levels of mercury in fish in pristine areas are explained by atmospheric transportation of mercury with the northeastern trade winds followed by wet deposition. Contrary to gold mining areas, where mercury is bound to drifting sediments, in ''pristine'' areas the mercury is freely available for bio-accumulation and uptake. Impacts on piscivorous reptiles, birds, and mammals are unknown, but likely to be negative.

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Section: Mercury Levels In Pristine Areas In Surinamesupporting

confidence: 92%

Mercury Levels in Pristine and Gold Mining Impacted Aquatic Ecosystems of Suriname, South America

Ouboter

Landburg

Quik³

et al. 2012

AMBIO

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“…The lakes in the Madeira river basin are subject to the deposition of suspended materials rich in adsorbed Hg due to a phenomenon known as "repiquete" -the swell of rising waters from the Madeira river that enter the Amazonian lakes, even the most distant ones, as in the case of Puruzinho lake (about 8 km distant), acting as deposits of Hg transported by the principal river or generated by processes that occur locally, such as runoff and burning along their banks. Bastos et al (2006) demonstrate that the lakes in this region have a higher Hg concentration than the Madeira river (Table 3). The Hg concentrations found in bottom sediments of the Madeira river and its tributaries are lower than those found by Pfeiffer et al (1989) at the peak of gold mining on the Madeira river (Table 3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Flood pulse and spatial dynamics of mercury in sediments in Puruzinho lake, Brazilian Amazon

et al. 2014

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The study was conducted in Puruzinho lake (Humaitá, AM) considering seasonal periods of rainy and dry in way to elucidate the flood pulse importance in the deposition, remobilization and distributions of mercury and organic matter in bottom sediments in the Madeira River Basin (Brazilian Amazon). Bottom sediments and soils samples were analyzed for total mercury and organic matter. Mercury concentrations obtained in bottom sediment were 32.20-146.40 ng g -1 and organic matter values were 3.5 -18.0%. The main region for accumulation of mercury and organic matter was in the central and deepest lake area In the rainy season there was a greater distribution of Hg and organic matter, mainly controlled by means of income of the Madeira river water during flooding, while the predominant process in the dry season was the remobilization of total Hg due to the resuspension of bottom sediments.

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“…The resulting mercury pollution of the aquatic environment is taken up by the halieutic resources (Farella et al, 2001;Roulet et al, 2001). These important pathways of exposure, later confirmed for other watersheds of the Amazonian Basin (Fostier et al, 2000;Lechler et al, 2000;Fadini and Jardim, 2001;Wasserman et al, 2003;Lacerda et al, 2004;Almeida et al, 2005;Bastos et al, 2006;Farella et al, 2006Farella et al, , 2007Mainville et al, 2006), constitute a continuous source of mercury exposure for the large number of traditional and immigrant communities of the region that rely on fish consumption as a dietary mainstay.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Despite many years of research and biomonitoring, adult traditional populations in the Amazon continue to be chronically exposed to high levels of mercury through their fish diet (Bastos et al, 2006, Pinheiro et al, 2006. In these populations, there is strong evidence of early nervous system dysfunction and, to a less extent, immunologic and cardiovascular effects among both adults and children (Lebel et al, 1996(Lebel et al, , 1998Grandjean et al, 1999;Amorim et al, 2000;Dolbec et al, 2000;Harada et al, 2001;Cordier et al, 2002;Mergler, 2002;Yokoo et al, 2003;Silbergeld et al, 2005;Fillion et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the last decade, a large number of exposure assessments of fish-eating populations have been conducted in different countries of the Amazon (Barbosa et al, 1997;Lebel et al, 1997;Cordier et al, 1998;Dolbec et al, 2001;Santos et al, 2003;Passos et al, 2003a;Gonc¸alves and Gonc¸alves, 2004;Webb et al, 2004;Do´rea et al, 2005;Bastos et al, 2006;Pinheiro et al, 2006). However, little attention has been given to the importance of mercury intake in these populations, although a limited number of studies have tried to estimate the rates of mercury intake Henshel, 1996, 2000;Bidone et al, 1997;Hacon et al, 1997;Kehrig et al, 1998;Fre´ry et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Daily mercury intake in fish-eating populations in the Brazilian Amazon

Passos

Silva

Lemire

et al. 2007

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

113

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Although high levels of fish consumption and bioindicators of mercury exposure have been reported for traditional populations in the Amazon, little is known about their actual daily intake of Hg. Using an ecosystem approach, calculate daily mercury intake in adult fish-eaters, examine the relations between mercury intake and bioindicators of exposure and the factors that influence these relations. A cross-sectional dietary survey on fish and fruit consumption frequency was carried out with 256 persons from six villages of the Tapajo´s River. Fish portion per meal was determined. Mercury concentration was determined for 1123 local fish specimens. Daily mercury intake (mg/kg/day) was determined for men and women from each village using the average fish-mercury concentration for the fish caught in their fishing zone, the average quantity of fish per meal, fish-species frequency consumption and participants' body weight. Fish-mercury averaged 0.33 mg/g70.33. Daily mercury intake varied between 0 and 11.8 mg/kg/day (mean 0.92 mg/kg/day70.89) and varied by gender and village. Mean blood-and hair-mercury were 58.7736.1 mg/l and 17.9711.5 mg/g, respectively. There was a strong and positive relation between blood-mercury and daily mercury intake, with an inverse relation for fruit intake and schooling; significant variations were observed with immigrant status, and among villages. Hair-mercury was directly associated with daily mercury intake and inversely related to schooling and fruit consumption. Fruit consumption modified the relation between daily mercury intake and blood-mercury levels: for the same daily mercury intake, persons eating more fruit had lower blood-mercury concentrations (ANCOVA Interaction term: F ¼ 10.9, Po0.0001). The median difference of the ratio of blood-mercury to daily mercury intake between low and high fruit consumers was 26, representing a 26.3% reduction. These findings reveal high levels of daily mercury intake. Rigorous studies for developing risk-based reference doses in the Amazon should be undertaken to orient viable risk-management strategies to reduce exposure, while maintaining fish diet.

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Mercury in the environment and riverside population in the Madeira River Basin, Amazon, Brazil

Cited by 143 publications

References 12 publications

Mercury Levels in Pristine and Gold Mining Impacted Aquatic Ecosystems of Suriname, South America

Mercury Levels in Pristine and Gold Mining Impacted Aquatic Ecosystems of Suriname, South America

Flood pulse and spatial dynamics of mercury in sediments in Puruzinho lake, Brazilian Amazon

Daily mercury intake in fish-eating populations in the Brazilian Amazon

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