Mercury and selenium content of Taiwanese seafood.
Fish consumption is avid in Taiwan (and other Asian nations), but little is known about the mercury and selenium content in local seafood. This paper reports on total mercury, methylmercury and selenium levels from 14 commonly consumed seafood items obtained from Taichung, Taiwan. Mean total mercury concentrations varied nearly 100-fold across species. Fifty per cent of the marlins sampled and 35% of the sharks exceeded the 0.3 µg g(-1) US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guideline. Methylmercury comprised a majority of the total mercury in all species. In all species studied there was a molar excess of selenium over mercury. The rank order of mean selenium-mercury molar ratios was red tilapia (166.8) > abura (87.9) > river prawn (82.4) > whiteleg shrimp (64.2) > butterfish (44.6) > milkfish (37.0) > tuna (15.6) > grouper (13.9) > ayu (13.4) > coral hind (13.0) > weever (11.8) > saury (9.0) > shark (7.8) > marlin (4.2).
a Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering , Hungkuang University , Sha-Lu , Taichung 433 , Taiwan.
G C
GC
Fang
D H
DH
Nam
N
N
Basu
D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds / Q000032:analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011786:Quality Control; D012307:Risk Factors; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis*; D012643:Selenium / Q000032:analysis*; D012754:Sharks; D013624:Taiwan; D014481:United States
D008767:Methylmercury Compounds; D008628:Mercury; D012643:Selenium
fish; mercury; risk–benefit; selenium; selenium health benefit value