National estimates of blood lead, cadmium, and mercury levels in the Korean general adult population

Kim, Nam Soo; Lee, Byung Kook

doi:10.1007/s00420-010-0522-6

Cited by 97 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 64 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…The geometric mean of the blood mercury concentration in this study was 3.42 µg/L. This finding is lower than that of other previous Korean studies [42526] but higher than that of previous reports from the United States and Canada [272829]. Fish consumption is one of major causes of mercury exposure [30], and fish and seafood are one of the favorite foods in Korea, which may explain why the blood mercury concentrations of the participants in this study were higher than those of adults in the United States and Canada.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

Association between Blood Mercury Level and Visceral Adiposity in Adults

Park

et al. 2017

Diabetes Metab J

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BackgroundFew studies have examined the association between mercury exposure and obesity. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between blood mercury concentrations and indices of obesity in adults.MethodsA total of 200 healthy subjects, aged 30 to 64 years, who had no history of cardiovascular or malignant disease, were examined. Anthropometric and various biochemical profiles were measured. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).ResultsAll subjects were divided into three groups according to blood mercury concentrations. Compared with the subjects in the lowest tertile of mercury, those in the highest tertile were more likely to be male; were current alcohol drinkers and smokers; had a higher body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and VAT; had higher levels of blood pressure, fasting glucose, and insulin resistance; and consumed more fish. The blood mercury concentration was significantly associated with anthropometric parameters, showing relationships with BMI, WC, and VAT. After adjusting for multiple risk factors, the odds ratios (ORs) for high mercury concentration was significantly higher in the highest VAT tertile than in the lowest VAT tertile (OR, 2.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.05 to 6.62; P<0.05).ConclusionThe blood mercury concentration was significantly associated with VAT in healthy adults. Further studies are warranted to confirm our findings.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

Association between Blood Mercury Level and Visceral Adiposity in Adults

Park

et al. 2017

Diabetes Metab J

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“…Smoking is also known to increase blood lead levels (Berode et al 1991;Navas-Acien et al 2004), and the recent KNHANES III study also found that the GM of the blood lead level was significantly higher in smokers than in nonsmokers and past smokers (Kim and Lee 2011). Conversely, in the present study, the GM of blood lead level in nonsmokers was significantly lower than that in smokers and past smokers; whereas, no difference was found between the GMs of blood lead levels in smokers and past smokers.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 50%

Blood lead levels of residents living around 350 abandoned metal mines in Korea

Kim

Sakong

Choi

et al. 2011

Environ Monit Assess

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In 2007, as part of the control and prevention of environmental contamination threatening public health, the Korean Ministry of Environment planned to implement a national biomonitoring survey of three metals: lead, cadmium, and mercury in the blood of residents living near 350 abandoned metal mines known to be contaminated and as possible threats to the health of inhabitants. Thus, we investigated demographic and lifestyle variables and blood lead levels in residents living around the mines and compared them against those of control subjects. We measured the blood lead concentrations in 14,849 subjects (14,132 from nearby the 350 abandoned metal mines and 717 subjects from eight control areas). A questionnaire was provided to all subjects to determine gender, age, mining experience, period of time living in the vicinity of mines, smoking status, and personal perception of abandoned mines as a health risk. The geometric means (95% confidence intervals) of the blood lead levels of residents living around the abandoned metal mines and control areas were 3.017 (2.996-3.037 μg/dL) [female, 2.797 μg/dL (2.771-2.822 μg/dL); male, 3.330 μg/dL (3.298-3.363 μg/dL)] and 2.757 (2.677-2.837 μg/dL) [female, 2.604 μg/dL (2.506-2.700 μg/dL); male, 2.993 μg/dL (2.859-3.126 μg/dL)], respectively. Among residents of the mining areas, nonsmokers and residents who had no mining experience showed significantly lower mean blood lead levels than did smokers, past smokers, and those with mining experience. The mean blood lead concentrations of residents who expressed some concern about the abandoned mines were significantly higher than those of residents without concerns. The mean blood lead concentration of residents living around the abandoned mines was significantly higher than that of residents living in control areas as well as that of the general adult Korean population. We also confirmed that smoking is an important variable to consider, as it increases blood lead concentration.

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“…Although blood mercury level reflects recent mercury exposure, it is used widely for monitoring the mercury exposure of population at risk and for comparison with other populations. The Second National Human Exposure and Biomonitoring Examination of Mercury measured the exposure level of 2369 Koreans at 3.80 (3.66 to 3.93) µg/L, whereas the Third Korean Health Examination Survey found a level of 4.15 (3.94 to 4.36) µg/L in 1997 adults [16-18]. The geometric mean of blood mercury concentration in our study was 7.99 (7.60 to 8.40) µg/L, which was higher than the range of 3.80 to 4.15 µg/L in the previous Korean National Studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, no study has evaluated the health effects of mercury exposure on the risk for cardiovascular disease in coastal areas. In Korea, research on mercury has been limited to evaluating the mercury exposure by region or investigating pathological mechanisms as heart rate variability [16-21]. Investigations in other countries have compared the cardiovascular disease risk of subjects with high and low level of mercury, although studies on factors that are intermediate between mercury levels and risk for cardiovascular disease are insufficient [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship Between Blood Mercury Concentration and Waist-to-Hip Ratio in Elderly Korean Individuals Living in Coastal Areas

You

Kim

et al. 2011

J Prev Med Public Health

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ObjectivesThis study investigated the relationship between the blood mercury concentration and cardiovascular risk factors in elderly Korean individuals living in coastal areas.MethodsThe sample consisted of 477 adults (164 males, 313 females) aged 40 to 65 years who visited a Busan health promotion center from June to September in 2009. The relationship between blood mercury concentration and cardiovascular risk factors including metabolic syndrome, cholesterol profiles, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), was investigated. Variables related to blood mercury concentration were further evaluated using multiple regression analysis.ResultsThe blood mercury concentration of the study population was 7.99 (range, 7.60 to 8.40) µg/L. In males, the blood mercury concentration was 9.74 (8.92 to 10.63) µg/L, which was significantly higher than that in females (7.21, [6.80 to 7.64] µg/L). The blood mercury concentration of the study population was related to several cardiovascular risk factors including low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (p=0.044), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (p=0.034), BMI (p = 0.006), waist circumference (p = 0.031), and WHR (p < 0.001). In males, the blood mercury concentration was significantly correlated with WHR in the multiple regression analysis.ConclusionsIn males, the blood mercury concentration was related to waist-to-hip ratio, which is a central obesity index and cardiovascular risk factor. Our finding suggests that cardiovascular disease risk in males was increased by mercury exposure via an obesity-related mechanism.

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National estimates of blood lead, cadmium, and mercury levels in the Korean general adult population

Cited by 97 publications

References 64 publications

Association between Blood Mercury Level and Visceral Adiposity in Adults

Association between Blood Mercury Level and Visceral Adiposity in Adults

Blood lead levels of residents living around 350 abandoned metal mines in Korea

Relationship Between Blood Mercury Concentration and Waist-to-Hip Ratio in Elderly Korean Individuals Living in Coastal Areas

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