Behavioural Effects of Exposure to Methylmercury During Early Development

Onishchenko, Natalia; Spulber, Ştefan; Ceccatelli, Sandra

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-2383-6_9

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…per day expressed as mercury. Sensory and motor disturbances, cognitive deficits, and depression-like behaviour are among the main alterations observed in rodent offspring following prenatal/perinatal exposure, with males being the most sensitive to the developmental neurotoxic effects of methylmercury (studies reviewed in Onishchenko et al, 2012). For example, the alteration in motivation-driven behaviour (i.e.…”

Section: Adult and Developmental Neurotoxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food

2012

EFS2

450

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EFSA was asked by the European Commission to consider new developments regarding inorganic mercury and methylmercury toxicity and evaluate whether the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) provisional tolerable weekly intakes for methylmercury of 1.6 µg/kg body weight (b.w.) and of 4 µg/kg b.w. for inorganic mercury were still appropriate. In line with JECFA, the CONTAM Panel established a tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for inorganic mercury of 4 µg/kg b.w., expressed as mercury. For methylmercury, new developments in epidemiological studies from the Seychelles Child Developmental Study Nutrition Cohort have indicated that n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish may counteract negative effects from methylmercury exposure. Together with the information that beneficial nutrients in fish may have confounded previous adverse outcomes in child cohort studies from the Faroe Islands, the Panel established a TWI for methylmercury of 1.3 µg/kg b.w., expressed as mercury. The mean dietary exposure across age groups does not exceed the TWI for methylmercury, with the exception of toddlers and other children in some surveys. The 95 th percentile dietary exposure is close to or above the TWI for all age groups. High fish consumers, which might include pregnant women, may exceed the TWI by up to approximately six-fold. Unborn children constitute the most vulnerable group. Biomonitoring data from blood and hair indicate that methylmercury exposure is generally below the TWI in Europe, but higher levels are also observed. Exposure to methylmercury above the TWI is of concern. If measures to reduce methylmercury exposure are considered, the potential beneficial effects of fish consumption should also be taken into account. Dietary inorganic mercury exposure in Europe does not exceed the TWI, but inhalation exposure of elemental mercury from dental amalgam is likely to increase the internal inorganic mercury exposure; thus the TWI might be exceeded. This opinion focuses only on the risks related to dietary inorganic mercury and methylmercury exposure and does not assess the nutritional benefits linked to certain foods (e.g. fish and other seafood).A call for annual collection of chemical contaminant occurrence data in food and feed, including mercury, was issued by EFSA in December 2010. In response, EFSA received 59 820 results on mercury in food from 20 European countries, mainly covering the period from 2004 to 2011. A total number of 59 650 results were described with sufficient detail to be used in the statistical analysis of the respective food groups; 98.2 % of the samples were for total mercury, 1.8 % for methylmercury and three samples for inorganic mercury.All the 20 food groups available at the first level of FoodEx were covered in the current data collection. The food groups 'Fish and other seafood' and 'Meat and meat products' dominated the food product coverage with 36.8 % and 17.6 % respectively. These were followed by 'Grain and grain-based products' at 7.8 % and 'Vegetables an...

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Section: Adult and Developmental Neurotoxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%