[Dietary intakes of mercury by children and adults from Jinhu area measured by the duplicate portion study].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the dietary mercuric intakes of children and adults from Jinhu area and assess its safety.


METHODS
The duplicate food portions of 62 subjects were collected over 3 consecutive days. Mercuric levels in duplicate samples were determined by the atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The safety of dietary mercuric intakes of children and adults from Jinhu area was evaluated by using the dietary mercuric PTWI recommended by JECFA of FAO/WHO.


RESULTS
It was found that the percentile 97.5 weekly dietary mercuric (of PTWI) intakes of children and adults were 2.92 microg/kg bw (58.4%), 1.67 microg/kg bw (33.4%) respectively. The weekly dietary mercuric intakes of children calculated on a body weight basis were higher than that of adults ( z = 4.0406, P < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Although the dietary mercuric intakes of children and adults are safe, it should be decreased to a lower level. Moreover, the dietary exposure to mercury are higher for children and should be considered seriously.
Wang
Feng
F
Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. xjwangfeng@gmail.com
Xu
Xuehong
X
Yu
Yunfei
Y
Wu
Yongning
Y
D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged
D008628:Mercury