Monitoring mercury exposure in reproductive aged women inhabiting the Tapajós river basin, Amazon.
Among Amazonian communities, exposure to methylmercury is associated mainly with fish consumption that may affect fetal development in pregnant women. Therefore a temporal assessment was performed to assess the exposure of reproductive aged women to mercury who reside in the riparian communities of São Luís do Tapajós and Barreiras located in the Tapajós basin of the Brazilian Amazon from 1999 to 2012. The total mercury concentration in the 519 hair samples was assessed by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. Data analysis showed that the average total mercury concentration decreased from 1.066 to 0.743 μg/g in those years. In 1999 the proportion of volunteers with mercury levels ≥ 10 μg/g was approximately 68 %. In general, exposure to mercury decreased among women of reproductive age, but the potential risks to reproduction and human health is still an issue as 22 % of the woman continued showing high mercury levels (≥ 10 μg/g) in 2012.
Núcleo de Medicina Tropical, Universidade Federal do Pará, Av. Generalíssimo Deodoro, 92, Belém, Pará, CEP 66055-240, Brazil, tereza@ufpa.br.
Tereza Cristina
TC
de Oliveira Corvelo
Érika Abdon Fiquene
ÉA
Oliveira
Amanda Magno
AM
de Parijós
Claudia Simone Baltazar
CS
de Oliveira
Rosane
R
do Socorro Pompeu de Loiola
Amélia A
AA
de Araújo
Carlos Araújo
CA
da Costa
Luiz Carlos
LC
de Lima Silveira
Maria
M
da Conceição Nascimento Pinheiro
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D045483:Rivers; D055815:Young Adult
D008628:Mercury