Erratum to: Mercury Level in Hair of Primary School Children in Korea and China

Breastfeeding is an essential complement to vaccination

“…Studies of TCV‐etHg metabolism in infants are very recent; half‐life of EtHg in immunized infants was estimated as 6 days (41) or half of that (42). Recent studies, however, are showing that vaccine‐etHg exposure can accumulate in infant's hair from serial exposure to thimerosal (43,44). Because parents may prefer multiple injections to be given at the same visit (7), if vaccinated with TCV children could be exposed to even higher doses of thimerosal.…”

Mercury Hair Concentration among Primary School Children in Malaysia

“…The children in this study had a relatively higher mean of mercury levels compared to that of children in the Czech Republic (mean 0.18 µg/g) and children in the United States (mean 0.30–0.40 µg/g) [ 4 , 23 ]. It was found that the children in this study had a comparable mean mercury concentration with the children in other higher income countries, such as Korea and had a higher mean compared to China [ 15 , 18 ]. This result could probably be due to a higher frequency of fish consumption among those respondents.…”

“…On the other hand, children who had an amalgam filling had a significantly higher level of mercury, compared to those who had no amalgam filling ( p = 0.033). Amalgam filling was known to be one of the routes of entry for mercury vapor into the body and it had previously been observed as causing the increment of mercury in the body [ 15 , 34 ].…”

Hair Methylmercury and Therapeutic Monitoring

“…Although this is an acceptable generalization, it is worth mentioning that hair can also carry organic mercury forms other than meHg. It has been shown that ethylmercury (etHg) derived from thimerosal in pharmaceuticals can end up in hair of adults and infants [3][4][5] ; etHg is the metabolite of thimerosal still used in drugs and vaccines available to pregnant mothers and infants in the majority of countries.…”

“…In relation to postnatal change in hair mercury concentrations, it has been suggested that some of it can be attributed to vaccine-ethylmercury. 2,4 Although the blood half-life of etHg is relatively short, its hair uptake is expected to be low, 12 but residual inorganic mercury in brain tissue is relatively higher than that left from meHg exposure. 13 Therefore, exposure to etHg that may not be quantitatively sufficient to appear in hair cannot be disregarded during pre-and postnatal mercury exposure.…”