Mercury concentrations in urine, scalp hair, and saliva in children from Germany

Abstract

Mercury levels measured in urine, hair, and saliva of 245 German children ( 8 -10 years old ) are reported. Mercury concentrations in urine ranged between < 0.1 and 5.3 g / l [ geometric mean ( GM ) 0.26 g / l or 0.25 g / g creatinine; median for both, 0.22 in g / l and g / g, respectively ]. Using multiple linear regression analysis, two predictors have been found accounting for 25.3% of the variance of mercury levels in urine: the number of teeth with amalgam fillings ( 23.2% ) and the number of defective amalgam fillings ( 2.1% ). The mercury content in hair ranged from < 0.06 to 1.7 g / g ( GM 0.18 g / g; median 0.18 g / g ). The frequency of fish consumption, the smoking habits of the parents, and the age of the children accounted for 20.4% of the variance of mercury levels in hair. The correlation between the hair mercury content and urine mercury concentration was low ( r = 0.297 ). Mercury levels in saliva ranged between < 0.32 and 4.5 g / l ( median 0.16 g / l ). The mercury concentration in saliva was below the limit of quantification of 0.32 g / l in more than 70% of the samples. Mercury analysis in urine is suitable to estimate mercury exposure due to amalgam fillings, whereas hair mercury better reflects mercury intake by fish consumption. Up to now, saliva does not seem to be a suitable tool to monitor the mercury burden, at least not at low exposure levels.

Scalp hair and urine mercury content of children in the Northeast United States: The New England Children's Amalgam Trial

“…Consistent with other studies in children (Batista et al 1996;Ip et al 2004;McDowell et al 2004;Pesch et al 2002) and adults (Airey 1983;Hightower and Moore 2003;McDowell et al 2004;Morrissette et al 2004), fish consumption was strongly associated with H-Hg such that children who ate fish weekly or more often were over eight times as likely to have high (≥1 μg/g) levels of H-Hg than children who ate fish less than twice a month.…”

“…The NECAT H-Hg values fall within the range seen in other studies of children (Benes et al 2002;Pesch et al 2002) and adults (Bjornberg et al 2003;Lindow et al 2003) in Northern Europe and the United Kingdom, but are lower than values reported from heavy fish-consuming populations in the UK, Asia, and Mediterranean regions (Batista et al 1996;Ip et al 2004;Murata et al 2004).…”

Casting the runes

“…In a population of 245 German children, mercury concentrations in urine ranged between <0.1 and 5.3 µg/l, with a mean of 0.25 µg/g creatinine, with some correlation with the number of teeth with amalgam fillings and also the number of defective amalgam fillings (Pesch et al 2002). Differences were noted between mercury in plasma and erythrocytes by Halbach et al (2000Halbach et al ( , 2007.…”

“…The mercury concentration in saliva and scalp hair is more controversial. According to Pesch et al (2002), hairs reflect fish consumption, the age of a child and the smoking habits of parents, with a low correlation between the hair and urine mercury content. Mercury content in saliva ranged between 0.32 and 4.5 µg/l and below the limit of quantification for more than 70% of the samples.…”

Methylmercury exposure and health effects in humans

“…[33][34][35][36][37] In contrast, mean hair Hg levels in populations with minimal fish consumption range from 0.1 to 1.0 µg g −1 , and mean blood Hg levels similarly range from 1.0 to 5.0 µg L −1 . [38][39][40][41] The recent results in a national health study in the United States found that geometric mean hair mercury was 0.20 µg g −1 in women (among frequent fish consumers, the geometric mean hair mercury level was three-fold higher, 0.38 v. 0.11 µg g −1 in non-consumers) and in children 0.12 µg g −1 (the geometric mean hair mercury levels were two-fold higher, 0.16 v. 0.08 µg g −1 in non-consumers). [42] Likewise, the geometric mean blood Hg concentration was 0.34 µg L −1 in children and 1.02 µg L −1 in women; the geometric mean was almost four-fold higher among women who ate three or more servings of fish in the past 30 days compared with non-consumers (1.94 v. 0.51 µg L −1 ).…”