title: Hazardous properties and toxicological update of mercury: From fish food to human health safety perspective.
abstract: The mercury (Hg) poisoning of Minamata Bay of Japan widely activated a global attention to Hg toxicity and its potential consequences to the aquatic ecosystem and human health. This has resulted to an increased need for a dynamic assembly, contextualization, and quantification of both the current state-of-the-art and approaches for understanding the cause-and-effect relationships of Hg exposure. Thus, the objective of this present review is to provide both hazardous toxic properties and toxicological update of Hg, focusing on how it ultimately affects the aquatic biota to potentially produce human health effects. Primarily, we discussed processes that relate to Hg exposure, including immunological aspects and risk assessment, vulnerability, toxicokinetics, and toxicodynamics, using edible fish, swordfish (Xiphias gladius), as a model. In addition, we summarized available information about Hg concentration limits set by different governmental agencies, as recognized by national and international standardization authorities.
authors.affiliation: a Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR) , Mazara del Vallo , Italy.
authors.forename: Charles Odilichukwu R
authors.initials: COR
authors.lastname: Okpala
authors.affiliation: a Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR) , Mazara del Vallo , Italy.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sardo
authors.affiliation: a Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR) , Mazara del Vallo , Italy.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vitale
authors.affiliation: a Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR) , Mazara del Vallo , Italy.
authors.forename: Gioacchino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bono
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biology , Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) , Trondheim , Norway.
authors.forename: Augustine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arukwe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005399:Fishes; D005504:Food Analysis; D005506:Food Contamination; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Mercury; aquatic environment; human health; immuno-toxicology; regulatory standards; swordfish