Abstract
Aim: The average mercury load in children under 7-years old was determined in a populated but not overly industrial coastal area in China. Methods: 395 blood samples, 1072 urine samples, and 581 hair samples were collected from 1076 children, aged 0 to 6 years, from eight representative communities of Xiamen, China. Mercury levels in the samples were surveyed. Results: The 95% upper limits of mercury in blood, urine, and hair for the children were 2.30, 1.50 and 2100.00 μg/kg, respectively. Levels tended to increase with age. Correlation analyses showed that mercury levels in blood and urine correlated with those in hair (n = 132), r = 0.49, p < 0.0001 and r = 0.20, p = 0.0008; however, blood mercury levels did not correlate with urine levels (n = 284), r = 0.07, p = 0.35. Conclusions: Surveying the average mercury load in children 0 to 6 years, and the 95% upper limit value of mercury in their blood, urine, and hair should help guide risk assessment and health management for children.
Highlights
Mercury (Hg) is ubiquitous in the global environment and derives from both natural sources and human enterprise [1]
The frequency distribution pattern of Hg level in urine was close to log-normal (Figure 1b)
Blood Hg level did increase with advancing age, since children aged 0 to 1 years, 2 to 3 years, and 4 to 6 years, respectively, showed GMs of 0.97, 1.00, and 1.06 μg/L (Table 2)
Summary
Mercury (Hg) is ubiquitous in the global environment and derives from both natural sources and human enterprise [1]. Environmental exposures to Hg contribute to a wide range of problems, e.g., inattention, memory disturbance, learning problems, impairment of social behavior, and low IQ [2]. These toxic effects are most serious in the developing central nervous system of children, so the greatest concern surrounds prenatal and early childhood Hg exposure [3]. Human bio-monitoring is a key method for assessing and evaluating the level of internal exposure to environmental pollutants experienced by both populations and individuals [4]. RVs should be revised periodically, to reflect changes in environmental pollutants [6], persistent organic pollutants, trace elements, and insecticides [7,8]
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