title: Human inorganic mercury exposure, renal effects and possible pathways in Wanshan mercury mining area, China.
abstract: Rice can accumulate methylmercury (MeHg) and rice consumption is the main route of MeHg exposure for the local population in Guizhou, China. However, inorganic Hg (IHg) load in human body is not comprehensively studied in highly Hg polluted areas such as Hg mining areas. This study is designed to evaluate human IHg exposure, related renal effects and possible pathways in Wanshan Hg mining area, Guizhou, Southwest China. Residents lived within 3 km to the mine waste heaps showed high Urine Hg (UHg) concentrations and the geometrical means (Geomean) of UHg were 8.29, 5.13, and 10.3 μg/g Creatinine (Cr) at site A, D, and E, respectively. It demonstrated a gradient of UHg concentrations with the distance from the pollution sources. A significantly positive correlation between paired results for UHg concentrations and serum creatinine (SCr) was observed in this study, but not for UHg and blood urea nitrogen (BUN). There are significant increases of SCr in two quartiles with high UHg concentrations. The results indicated that human IHg exposure may cause impairment of renal function. By calculation of Probable Daily Intake from different routes, we found that dietary intake is the main pathway of IHg exposure for the local population, rather than inhalation of Hg vapor.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
authors: Ping
authors: P
authors: Li
authors: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors: Buyun
authors: B
authors: Du
authors: Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors: Hing Man
authors: HM
authors: Chan
authors: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China. Electronic address: fengxinbin@vip.skleg.cn.
authors: Xinbin
authors: X
authors: Feng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000187:drug effects*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D008906:Mining; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Human exposure; Inorganic mercury; Pathway; Renal effect