title: Human Body Burden and Dietary Methylmercury Intake: The Relationship in a Rice-Consuming Population.
abstract: Rice can be the main route of methylmercury (MeHg) exposure for rice-consuming populations living in area where mercury (Hg) is mined. However, the current risk assessment paradigm for MeHg exposure is based on epidemiological data collected from fish-consuming populations. This study was designed to evaluate the relationship between dietary MeHg intake and human body burden in a rice -consuming population from the Wanshan Hg mining area in China. Hair MeHg concentrations averaged 2.07 ± 1.79 μg/g, and the average blood MeHg concentration across the study area ranged from 2.20 to 9.36 μg/L. MeHg constituted 52.8 ± 17.5% and 71.7 ± 18.2% of total Hg (THg) on average in blood and hair samples, respectively. Blood and hair MeHg concentrations, rather than THg, can be used as a proxy of human MeHg exposure. Hair MeHg levels showed no significant monthly variation; however, hair THg can be impacted by inorganic Hg exposure. The toxicokinetic model of MeHg exposure based on fish consumption underestimated the human hair MeHg levels, and this may be a consequence of the high hair-to-blood MeHg ratio (361 ± 105) in the studied rice-consuming population. The use of risk assessment models based on fish consumption may not be appropriate for inland mining areas where rice is the staple food.
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China.
authors.forename: Xinbin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: ‡Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Hing-Man
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: §Department of Toxicology, Public Health College, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China.|!!University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Buyun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D001822:Body Burden; D002681:China; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D008906:Mining; D012275:Oryza; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds