title: Preliminary study on health risk from mercury exposure to residents of Wujiazhan town on the Di'er Songhua river, Northeast China.
abstract: Mercury concentrations in hair are typically used as a biomarker to assess exposure to mercury. A total of 108 hair samples were collected from residents (age range 5-73 years) of Wujiazhan town, northeast China, to determine total mercury concentrations. Hair mercury concentrations ranged from 0.16 to 199 mg kg(-1) with an average value of 3.41 mg kg(-1). The relationships between mercury concentration and gender and between hair mercury concentration and age were not significant. Overall, 16.7% of all samples were above the RfD value published by the United States Environmental Protection agency. The results indicate that there may be some been health risk from mercury exposure to the residents in the study area.
authors.affiliation: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wei Shan Road 3195, 130012 Changchun, China. zhangzhl@hkbu.edu.hk
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qichao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017747:Seafood; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D008767:Methylmercury Compounds; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury