Mercury in human hair due to environment and diet: a review.

Abstract

Hair mercury levels increase with the amount of fish in the diet and the amount of mercury in the fish species consumed. If hair mercury levels in people throughout the world were monitored by a standard analytical procedure, the results would indicate locations where people's body burden of mercury is high enough to be subclinically unhealthy and where controls on environmental emissions might be beneficial. The relationship of hair mercury concentration to the method of sampling and analysis of hair, the analysis of the results, the amount of fish consumed, the country and location from which samples were taken and the age, sex and occupation of the donor is discussed.

Monitoring of Environmental Mercury Exposure Using Hair as Bioindicator and the Study of Potential Factors Affecting on It in Karachi

“…Organic mercury is highly toxic because of its nonpolar nature, due to which it is soluble in fats and can spread all over the body by passing through the membrane [4]. Generally, humans get exposed to methyl mercury through fish consumption which can be effectively absorbed by the digestive tract while exposure to mercury vapors (Hg 0 ) can be through lungs and skin [2]. The toxic effects of mercury were first realized and well studied when serious mercury poisoning occurred in Japan near the Minamata bay through consumption of fishes and sea foods contaminated with mercury, which was released from an industrial plant into coastal area of Minamata [5].…”

“…High affinity for sulfhydryl groups enables both organic and inorganic mercury to destroy every kind of living cell [6]. Brain cell and nerves can be damaged by methyl mercury while inorganic mercury can target endocrine, urogenital and cardiovascular system [2] as it has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier [1].…”

“…This mega city is spread over 3530 km 2 with an estimated population of 18 million [7]. Karachi has grown approximately 25 times since 1947, which makes it one of the fastest growing cities of the world [8].…”

“…Mercury from the blood capillaries incorporates into hair follicles at the time of formation of hair by the process of detoxification. So hair contains a temporal record of exposure to mercury in previous months [2,13]. Moreover, hair can be easily sampled, collected, stored and transported [14] which make it a suitable bioindicator for the assessment of mercury exposure [15].…”

“…Although mercury occurs naturally in the environment and is widely distributed, environmental mercury level increases through man-made activities such as burning of fossil fuels, industrial pollution, metal refining, ore processing etc. Along with the atmosphere, sources such as ground-water and pesticides used in agriculture are contaminating the food chain with mercury which ultimately reaches humans [2,3]. Biological systems may expose to mercury in the form of liquid mercury, elemental mercury vapors, inorganic mercury salts ( 2 2 Hg + , Hg…”