Mercury Exposure in Children of the Wanshan Mercury Mining Area, Guizhou, China |
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To evaluate the mercury (Hg) exposure level of children located in a Hg mining area, total Hg concentrations and speciation were determined in hair and urine samples of children in the Wanshan Hg mining area, Guizhou Province, China. Rice samples consumed by these same children were also collected for total mercury (THg) and methyl-mercury (MeHg) analysis. The geometric mean concentrations of THg and MeHg in the hair samples were 1.4 (range 0.50-6.0) mu g/g and 1.1 (range 0.35-4.2) mu g/g, respectively, while the geometric mean concentration of urine Hg (UHg) was 1.4 (range 0.09-26) mu g/g Creatinine (Cr). The average of the probable daily intake (PDI) of MeHg via rice consumption was 0.052 (0.0033-0.39) mu g/kg/day, which significantly correlated with the hair MeHg concentrations (r = 0.55, p < 0.01), indicating that ingestion of rice is the main pathway of MeHg exposure for children in this area. Furthermore, 18% (26/141) of the PDIs of MeHg exceeded the USEPA Reference Dose (RfD) of 0.10 mu g/kg/day, indicating that children in this area are at a high MeHg exposure level. This paper for the first time evaluates the co-exposure levels of IHg and MeHg of children living in Wanshan mining area, and revealed the difference in exposure patterns between children and adults in this area. Publication name | INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, 13 (11):10.3390/ijerph13111107 NOV 2016 | Author(s) | Du, Buyun; Li, Ping; Feng, Xinbin; Qiu, Guangle; Zhou, Jun; Maurice, Laurence | Corresponding author(s) | LI Ping; FENG Xinbin liping@mail.gyig.ac.cn; fengxinbin@vip.skleg.cn Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Geochem, State Key Lab Environm Geochem, Guiyang 550081, Peoples R China. | View here for the details
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