Assessment of Dietary Mercury Intake and Blood Mercury Levels in the Korean Population: Results from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey 2012-2014.

Seong-Ah Kim,Hyojee Joung,Youngmin Kwon,Suejin Kim

doi:10.3390/ijerph13090877

Abstract

From a public health perspective, there is growing concern about dietary mercury intake as the most important source of mercury exposure. This study was performed to estimate dietary mercury exposure and to analyze the association between mercury intake and blood mercury levels in Koreans. The study subjects were 553 adults, comprising a 10% representative subsample of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) 2012–2014, who completed a health examination, a face-to-face interview, and a three-day food record. Dietary mercury and methylmercury intakes were assessed from the three-day food record, and blood mercury concentration was measured using a mercury analyzer. The association between dietary mercury intake and blood mercury levels was analyzed by comparing the odds ratios for the blood mercury levels above the Human BioMonitoring (HBM) I value (5 μg/L) among the three groups with different mercury intakes. The average total mercury intake was 4.74 and 3.07 μg/day in males and females, respectively. The food group that contributed most to mercury intake was fish and shellfish, accounting for 77.8% of total intake. The geometric mean of the blood mercury concentration significantly and linearly increased with the mercury and methylmercury intakes (p < 0.001). The odds ratios for blood mercury levels above the HBM I value in the highest mercury and methyl mercury intake group were 3.27 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.79–5.95) and 3.20 (95% CI 1.77–5.79) times higher than that of the lowest intake group, respectively. Our results provide compelling evidence that blood mercury level has a strong positive association with dietary intake, and that fish and shellfish contribute most to the dietary mercury exposure.

Highlights

There is growing concern about exposure to mercury from a public health perspective [1]
There were no significant differences in the demographic characteristics the selected for the dietary survey and the total betweensubsample the selectedareas subsample areas for the dietary survey and the total Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS)
The results show that the intakes of mercury and methylmercury were below the PTWI in most of the Korean population, and the blood mercury level in males and people living in coastal areas was relatively high; in addition, blood mercury concentration significantly and linearly increased with the mercury and methylmercury intake, especially from fish and shellfish

Summary

Introduction

There is growing concern about exposure to mercury from a public health perspective [1]. Mercury exposure can have harmful effects on the neurological, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune systems [2,3]. Because fetuses may be even more sensitive to mercury than adults [4,5], mercury exposure during pregnancy is an important public health concern. Potential sources of mercury exposure include the inhalation of mercury vapor in the air, ingestion of foods and drinking water contaminated with mercury, and exposure to dental amalgam through dental care [6]. Dietary intake is the most important source of mercury exposure, with fish and other seafood as the dominant source of mercury. Res. Public Health 2016, 13, 877; doi:10.3390/ijerph13090877 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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