Mercury in human hair as an indicator of the fish consumption.

 OBJECTIVES: Mercury and most of its compounds are extremely toxic and
should be handled with care. It can be inhaled and absorbed through the
skin and mucous membranes. The most toxic forms of mercury are its
organic compounds such as dimethylmercury and methylmercury. Fish have
a natural tendency to accumulate mercury. Methylmercury is produced by
microbial methylation of inorganic mercury in water sediment then it
infiltrates the food chain and it consequently accumulates in fish.
Fish are the main source of methylmercury in human food. Mercury is
transferred into a hair; and this can be than used to monitor the
long-term exposure to mercury. The content of mercury in hair depends
on the frequency of fish consumption. The aim of our study was to
compare mercury content in the hair of children that had various
amounts of fish consumption (increased or reduced). 

DESIGN: Total
mercury content in hair was determined by direct method of cold vapors
using an AMA 245 analyzer. A total of 174 hair samples from the
children (9-17 years old) were analyzed. In this study, the following
localities were compared: Neratovice (n=42), Jeseníky (n=44), Prague
(n=59) in Czech Republic and Olsztyn in Poland (n=29). Every sample was
accompanied with questionnaire about age, gender, regions, amalgam
fillings and fish consumption.

RESULTS: We did not find a correlation
between the content of mercury in hair with age, gender or amalgam
fillings. We did find a correlation between fish consumption and the
amount of mercury found in the hair samples.

CONCLUSION: The amount of
mercury in hair increases with more frequent consumption of freshwater
and marine fish.

 SOURCE PubMed