Recent reports of elevated levels of methylmercury (MeHg) in rice revealed the possible occurrence of MeHg in infant rice cereals, leading to potential MeHg exposure through cereal consumption. Total mercury (THg) and MeHg levels in 119 infant cereal samples commonly marketed in the United States and China and estimated daily intake of MeHg through cereal consumption were determined. Concentrations of THg and MeHg in the tested cereal samples ranged from 0.35 to 15.9 μg/kg and from 0.07 to 13.9 μg/kg with means of 2.86 and 1.61 μg/kg, respectively. Rice-based cereals contained MeHg levels significantly higher than those of nonrice cereals, indicating that MeHg in rice could be source of MeHg in cereals. Cereal consumption could be a potential pathway of MeHg exposure for infants, as the EDI through cereal consumption amounted to 4-122% of the MeHg reference dose, suggesting the necessity of further evaluation of the potential health risk of dietary MeHg exposure to infants.

The role of macrophytes in the biogeochemical cycle of mercury (Hg) in the Florida Everglades is poorly understood. Stable isotope tracer techniques were employed to investigate Hg uptake by sawgrass ( Cladium jamaicense) from soil and atmospheric pathways and the fate of Hg after absorption. Our results suggest that soil spiked Hg was rapidly taken up by roots and transported to aboveground parts. The spiked Hg that was transported to the aboveground parts was trapped; no release of the spikedHg from the leaf to the air was detected. Atmospheric Hg exposure experiments revealed that the majority of the previously deposited Hg taken into the leaf was fixed, with a very limited proportion (1.6%) available for re-emission to the atmosphere. The percentage of Hg fixed in the leaf will help reduce the model uncertainty in estimating the Hg exchange over the air-vegetation surface. We propose that sawgrass needs to be viewed as an important sink for atmospheric Hg in the regional Hg mass balance; this would have important implications for the critical loads of Hg to the Everglades. The multi-isotope tracer technique could be an effective tool to identify the role of plants in biogeochemical cycling of Hg in other ecosystems.

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Human exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) through diets (e.g., fish and rice) is a global health concern. Although MeHg exposure through fish consumption has long been considered the major route of mercury health risks, studies concerning the long-term changes in MeHg exposure from fish remain lacking. In sharply contrast to the fish MeHg issue, the presence of MeHg in rice has only been reported recently and its implications on MeHg exposure, albeit probably important, are still in infancy. Focusing on the discrepancies in the studies of MeHg exposure through fish and rice consumption, this study was aimed to assess the MeHg exposure of human infants through consumption of rice cereals and to evaluate the long-term changes in fish MeHg. The presence of MeHg in rice prompted the studies on MeHg concentrations and bioaccessibility in rice cereals and potential infant dietary exposure to MeHg through cereal consumption, which is believed to be the first of its kind. The analysis of a variety of infant cereals sampled from the common markets in the United States and China showed that the concentrations of MeHg in the cereals ranged from 0.07 to 13.9 µg/kg with a mean of 1.61 µg/kg. On the basis of these MeHg concentrations, the daily intake vii of MeHg through rice cereal consumption for infants was estimated to be 4-122% of the reference dose (RfD). The MeHg bioaccessibility in the cereals, determined using an in vitro digestion method, ranged from 25 to 74% with a mean of 48±16%. A further examination on these results, however, revealed the occurrence of MeHg re-adsorption during extraction steps, which leads to the underestimation of MeHg bioaccessibility and warrants cautions to be exercised when using these procedures to evaluate bioaccessibility in general. The long-term changes in fish MeHg were investigated through conducting a comprehensive data analysis on datasets for the Everglades, a well-studied aquatic ecosystem for Hg contamination. The results showed a clear decline of MeHg in mosquitofish in the Everglades during the past two decades, which was probably related to changes in environmental conditions (e.g., periphyton, dissolve organic matter, and sulfate) instead of mercury deposition. viii