title: A population assessment of mercury exposure from two cities of Pakistan with respect to freshwater and marine fish consumption.
abstract: In this study, we aimed to estimate the level of mercury (Hg) in scalp hair samples of human subjects and its association with consumption of sea- and freshwater fish species. The scalp hairs were collected from both genders (male and female) aged between 15 and 50 years (n = 200), living in coastal areas of Karachi, who mostly consumed sea fish species, referred to as exposed subjects. For comparison purposes, scalp hair samples of both genders (n = 160) were collected from the inhabitants of Karachi and Hyderabad cities who consumed freshwater fish species termed as referent subjects. The frequently consumed fresh and marine fish species were also collected. The level of Hg was determined in fish and scalp hair samples by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry, prior to ultrasonic-assisted acid digestion in a mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The validity of methodology was checked by certified reference material (CRM) BCR 397 (human hair) and DORM-2. The concentrations of Hg in sea- and freshwater fish were found in the range of 1.47-2.09 and 0.402-0.676 μg/g, respectively. The exposed subjects had significantly elevated levels of Hg in scalp hair samples (1.8-4.3 μg/g) as compared to referent subjects (0.87-1.95 μg/g) (p < 0.001). A significant positive correlation was obtained between the concentration of Hg in hair and age of study population. Exposed and referent female subjects had higher levels of Hg in scalp hair than that in males of both study groups (p = 0.02-0.031).
authors.affiliation: Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abdul Qadir
authors.initials: AQ
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan tgkazi@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Tasneem Gul
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Kazi
authors.affiliation: Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Hassan Imran
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Afridi
authors.affiliation: University of Science and Technology Bannu, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mohammad Balal
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Arain
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002947:Cities; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012535:Scalp / Q000737:chemistry; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Mercury; cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry; gender; scalp hair; sea fish