title: More than half of US youth consume seafood and most have blood mercury concentrations below the EPA reference level, 2009-2012.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Consuming seafood has health benefits, but seafood can also contain methylmercury, a neurotoxicant. Exposure to methylmercury affects children at different stages of brain development, including during adolescence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to examine seafood consumption and blood mercury concentrations in US youth.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the 2009-2012 NHANES, a cross-sectional nationally representative sample of the US population, seafood consumption in the past 30 d and blood mercury concentrations on the day of examination were collected from 5656 youth aged 1-19 y. Log-linear regression was used to examine the association between frequency of specific seafood consumption and blood mercury concentration, adjusting for race/Hispanic origin, sex, and age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 2009-2012, 62.4% ± 1.4% (percent ± SE) of youth consumed any seafood in the preceding month; 38.4% ± 1.4% and 48.5% ± 1.5% reported consuming shellfish and fish, respectively. In 2009-2012, the geometric mean blood mercury concentration was 0.50 ± 0.02 μg/L among seafood consumers and 0.27 ± 0.01 μg/L among those who did not consume seafood. Less than 0.5% of youth had blood mercury concentrations ≥5.8 μg/L. In adjusted log-linear regression analysis, no significant associations were observed between frequency of breaded fish or catfish consumption and blood mercury concentrations, but frequency of consuming certain seafood types had significant positive association with blood mercury concentrations: high-mercury fish (swordfish and shark) [exponentiated β coefficient (expβ): 2.40; 95% CI: 1.23, 4.68]; salmon (expβ: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.55); tuna (expβ: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.29, 1.45); crabs (expβ: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.17, 1.55); shrimp (expβ: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.20), and all other seafood (expβ: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.17, 1.32). Age-stratified log-linear regression analyses produced similar results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Few US youth have blood mercury concentrations ≥5.8 μg/L, although more than half of US youth consumed seafood in the past month.
authors: Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, Hyattsville, MD; and wjf7@cdc.gov.
authors: Samara Joy
authors: SJ
authors: Nielsen
authors: Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, Hyattsville, MD; and.
authors: Yutaka
authors: Y
authors: Aoki
authors: Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, Hyattsville, MD; and US Public Health Service, Rockville, MD.
authors: Brian K
authors: BK
authors: Kit
authors: Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, Hyattsville, MD; and.
authors: Cynthia L
authors: CL
authors: Ogden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000097:blood*; D018673:Nutrition Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis*; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D008628:Mercury
keywords: blood mercury; fish; seafood; shellfish; youth
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