Mercury exposure through fish consumption in the urban area of Alta Floresta in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

This work addresses the mercury exposure scenarios through fish consumption in the urban area of Alta Floresta, by comparing the different patterns of mercury exposure from fish ingestion for different population groups. This study was based on field surveys that could provide background information, such as the characteristics of Hg sources, characteristics of local and regional environment, Hg concentrations in different media, and the characterization of the local urban population. The urban area of Alta Floresta is one of the most important gold-trading centers in Amazonia, where approximately 1 ton of gold has been commercialized monthly. The general adult urban population is exposed to low-level mercury concentration via fish consumption with an average daily intake of 0.2 μg/kg (b.w.) and an estimated hazard quotient of 0.7. However, the fishermen families present an average daily intake of 2.2 μg/kg (b.w.) and a hazard quotient of 8.6. The children of fishermen families between 5 and 14 years old are the main risk group for Hg exposure via fish ingestion. Based on the uncertainty analysis, the Hg fish concentrations and the fish ingestion rate were found to be the main parameters affecting the variability of the model outputs.