Segmental hair mercury evaluation of a single family along the Upper Madeira Basin, Brazilian Amazon

• Main Authors: Boischio Ana Amélia Peixoto (Author), Cernichiari Elsa (Author), Henshel Diane (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 0102-311X; 1678-4464
• Keywords: Mercury; Mercury Poisoning; Fishes; Exposed Population; Medicine; R; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Cadernos de Saúde Pública, Vol 16, Iss 3, Pp 681-686 (2000)

Mercury pollution (MeHg) up the aquatic food chains in the Amazonian ecosystems has been a major concern in environmental health. Riverside people (ribeirinhos) along the Upper Madeira river are heavy fish eaters. Hair is the best biomarker for MeHg exposure. By assuming a constant hair growth rate, it is possible to evaluate a temporal profile of Hg exposure over the recent defined past. In this paper we present the segmental total hair Hg concentrations from a single family from which some of the 10 persons investigated had high hair Hg concentrations (peak of 339 ppm). We also presented the hair MeHg content from 4 out of the 10 family members investigated. There was a wide variation in total hair Hg concentrations (8 to 339 ppm) among these individuals, who were mostly sharing their meals; there was also a wide variation in total Hg concentrations in the same individual over time (136 to 274 ppm). Hg speciation showed a mean and standard deviation in the MeHg content of 62% and 6%, respectively. The wide variation in total hair Hg concentration strongly indicated that it is possible to mitigate critical Hg exposure levels by conducting a fish advisory.