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Longitudinal Mercury Monitoring Within the Japanese and Korean Communities (United States): Implications for Exposure Determination and Public Health Protection
Citation:
Tsuchiya, A., T. A. HINNERS, F. Krogstad, J. W. White, T. M. Burbacher, E. M. Faustman, AND K. Marien. Longitudinal Mercury Monitoring Within the Japanese and Korean Communities (United States): Implications for Exposure Determination and Public Health Protection. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC, 117(11):1760-1766, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
Mercury (Hg), specifically methylmercury (MeHg), has been shown to cause developmental and neurological effects with the severest effects having been observed with catastrophic exposure to communities in Japan and Iraq (Bakir et al. 1973; Harada 1995; Kondo 2000; NRC 2000). Exposure to MeHg can come from many routes, but the most prominent nonoccupational pathway is fish consumption (NRC 2000). For the purpose of public health protection, the US EPA has established a reference dose (RfD) for MeHg of 0.1 g/kg/day (EPA 2001; NRC 2000). A hairHg level of 1.2 ppm is considered to be the exposure equivalent of the RfD (NRC 2000).
Description:
Background: Estimates of exposure to toxicants are predominantly obtained from single timepoint data. Fishconsumption guidance based on these data may be incomplete as recommendations are unlikely to consider impact from factors such as intraindividual variability, seasonal differences in consumption behavior and species consumed. Objectives/Methods: We estimated mercury exposure based on fish intake and hairmercury levels within Korean (N=108) and Japanese (N=106) populations at two and three timepoints, respectively. Goals were twofold: examine changes in hairmercury levels, fish intake behavior and Hg bodyburden over time, and determine if data from multiple timepoints could improve guidance. Results/Conclusion: More than 50 fish species are consumed with 8 species representing ≈3/4 of fish consumed by the Japanese and 10 species representing ≈4/5 of fish intake by the Koreans. Fish species responsible for most mercury intake did not change over time;<10 species accounted for most of the mercury bodyburden in each population. Longitudinal variability of hairmercury levels changed slowly across the study period. Japanese with hairmercury levels >1.2ppm (mean=2.2ppm) consumed ≈150% more fish than those ≤1.2ppm (mean=0.7ppm). However, the nutritional benefits of fish can be obtained as even those ≤1.2ppm consumed substantial fish amounts. A 2fold difference in fish intake was observed between openended and twoweek recall fishconsumption surveys. Openended survey data better represent mercury intake as determined from hairHg levels. Single timepoint fish intake data appear to be adequate for deriving guidance, but caution is warranted as study is required to determine the significance of the different outcomes observed using the two survey time-frames.
URLs/Downloads:
Longitudinal Mercury Monitoring Within The Japanese and Korean Communities (U.S.): Implications for Exposure Determination and Public Health Protection
HINNERS 09-087 FINAL JOURNAL..PDF (PDF, NA pp, 169 KB, about PDF)