Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios and mercury concentration in the scalp hair of residents from Taiji, a whaling town

Relationships among Mercury Concentration, and Stable Isotope Ratios of Carbon and Nitrogen in the Scalp Hair of Residents from Seven Countries: Effects of Marine Fish and C4 Plants Consumption

“…According to previous reports [24–29], δ 13 C in scalp hair samples collected from Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Oceania ranges from -22 to -15 ‰, values which fall between the levels found in C3 plants (about -26 ‰) and C4 plants (about -13 ‰) and similar in range to the levels observed in predatory fish (between -20 and -16 ‰). On the other hand, the level of δ 15 N in scalp hair has been reported to be between 6 and 13 ‰ [24–29], which fall between the levels found in plants (usually between 0 and 5 ‰) [3] and those in marine mammals and predatory fish (generally higher than 12 ‰).…”

Global spatial distributions of nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios of modern human hair

“…[6,14,50] This has been demonstrated by the analysis of fingernails and hair of indigenous populations in Northern Greenland and Southwest Alaska who consume high amounts of maritime food. [14,50] However, such high amounts of maritime food in the modern human diet are exceptional and the observed spatial distribution of human δ In contrast to Europe, the data coverage in Africa and Central and South America (except Brazil) is too sparse to identify intra-continental differences and variations in human δ Several factors have been identified to influence human δ 15 N values: the amount of marine food, terrestrial meat, and animal products in the diet, [6,[9][10][11][12][13][14]25] physiological situations [27,28] and disease, illness or malnutrition. [30,51,52] As the δ N-depleted plants in cold and humid regions.…”

“…Northern Ireland 9.3 ±0.6 (≥128) (3,5); [4,9,11,17,20,36] Netherlands 9.4 ±0.5 (≥18) (3); [4,17,36,37] Belgium, Luxembourg 9.4 ±0.9 (≥19) + (2); [4,17,26,36] Portugal, Spain 9.4 ±0.6 (49) (1,3); [4,17] Norway 9.4 ±0.8 (≥13) (2,3); [4,36] Finland, Sweden 9.5 ±0.5 (16) (1-3); [4,17] Denmark 9.7 ±0.6 (57) + [4,14,17] Russia, Ukraine 9.9 ±0.9 (≥58) (2,3); [4,36] America Canada* 8.4 ±0.5 (16) [4,9] Costa Rica, Panama* 8.8 ±0.4 (19) (3); [4] Argentina, Chile, Uruguay 8.8 ±0.7 (10) (1-3); [4,9] USA 8. [4,32,36] Southeast Asia c 9.1 ±0.8 (36) (1-3); [4] Japan, Korea 9.5 ±0.7 (161) (1); [4,25,37,38] Central Asia incl. Mongolia d 9.9 ±1.0 (>29) (1-3); [34,42] Africa Western Africa h 9.4 ±0.8 (13) (1,3); [4] Eastern Africa f 9.4 ±1.1…”

Are red mullet efficient as bio-indicators of mercury contamination? A case study from the French Mediterranean

“…This approach can provide time and space integrated information about the actual Hg contamination, and also about the bio-available fraction of the contaminant, which actually enters the trophic networks. Determining Hg concentrations in marine organisms is also required for sanitary purpose, as consumption of contaminated products is the main pathway leading to human intoxication (Endo et al, 2013;Martí-Cid et al, 2007). Nevertheless, this approach is rendered complex because of the influence of various biotic and abiotic factors on the bioaccumulation (Phillips and Rainbow, 1998).…”