Risk estimates for children and pregnant women exposed to mercury-contaminated Oreochromis niloticus and Lates niloticus in Lake Albert Uganda

Abstract

Exposure to mercury contaminated fish predisposes populations particularly children and pregnant women to various health hazards including neurotoxicity, reproductive abnormalities and cognitive disorders. Earlier studies in the Lake Albert community have demonstrated the presence of mercury in Nile tilapia and Nile perch. However, the risk estimates for vulnerable groups such as Children and pregnant women is not well documented. Secondary data-set from previous studies were employed comprising family household size and fish consumption history, fish consumption quantity and frequency and mercury levels in fish species in comparison with FAO/WHO guidelines. Data collected was used to establish the hazard quotients (HQs) for the vulnerable group and the general population. A risk model was developed using iRISK to demonstrate the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) for eating different parts of the fish (muscle and bellyfat). HQ values (HQ = 2.05) above one for the vulnerable group were realized especially with Nile perch muscle. The highest DALYs (0.111) was obtained with tilapia muscle consumption. The study outcome reveals that vulnerable populations are at risk of non-carcinogenic complications. Therefore, there is a need for sensitization of the community especially the vulnerable groups about risks associated with consuming mercury-contaminated fish.

Exposure Assessment of methyl mercury from consumption of fish and seafood in Peninsular Malaysia

“…Although the level of meHg in cephalopod and crustacean is lower compared to other marine fish, a high amount of consumption caused these groups of seafood to be significant contributors to meHg accumulation in adolescents in Peninsular Malaysia. Similar patterns of results were reported elsewhere, for example, Andrew et al (2016) demonstrated the disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) for eating different parts of fish using a risk model (iRISK) and reported the frequency of consumption had exposed the children (< 17 years old) to noncarcinogenic risk, even the amount of Hg in fish part was minute. Their finding also showed that frequent access to tilapia fish in the community and district market attributed to more DALYs.…”

“…MeHg can be concentrated in fish either directly in the water or through food chain components. The ingestion of fish contaminated with meHg has received considerable critical attention due to the adverse health outcomes of neurologic damage such as mental retardation, seizures, vision and hearing lost, delayed development, language disorder, and memory loss as well as renal damage, reproductive disorders, and damage in the cardiovascular system (Mehouel et al 2019;Andrew et al 2016;Barone et al 2015). MeHg could potentially be one of the risk factors for infertility (Hsi et al 2016).…”

“…There have been studies conducted to support regulatory analysis that rely on quantitative fish consumption estimates based on representative populations survey (von Stackelberg et al 2017) or involved a specific or broad range of seafood species consumed by population (Mehouel et al 2019;Budiyanto et al 2019;Barone et al 2015;Al-Mughairi et al 2013), collected from specific or different locations (Bhupander and Mukherjee 2011;Uratno et al 2018) or wild and farm species (Chouvelon et al 2009). There are also studies that involved vulnerable groups of pregnant women, children below 17 years old, women of child-bearing age, and other high-risk consumers (Stuchal et al 2019;You et al 2018;Kuras et al 2017;Juric et al 2017;Andrew et al 2016;Whyte et al 2009). Data from other sources are also reported for common fish eaten or fish parts or organs, for example, fish muscle, liver, gills, kidney, and others (Matos et al 2018;Zolfaghari 2018).…”

­­­­Exposure Assessment of Methyl Mercury from Consumption of Fish and Seafood in Peninsular Malaysia

“…Although level of meHg in cephalopod and crustacean is lower compared to other marine sh, but high amount of consumption caused these groups of seafood were signi cant contributors to meHg accumulation in adolescent in Peninsular Malaysia. Similar patterns of results were reported elsewhere, for example Andrew et al, (2016) demonstrated the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) for eating different part of sh using a risk model (iRISK) and reported the frequency of consumption had exposed the children (< 17 years old) to non-carcinogenic risk, even the amount of Hg in sh part were minute. Their nding also showed that frequent access to tilapia sh in the community and district market, attributed to more DALY's.…”

Mercury Contamination and Spill-Over at Human-Wildlife-Environment Interface

“…Choice of the oral reference dose is critical in determining the health risks the vulnerable community is exposed to, that is, use of the general population or vulnerable population oral reference dose [34]. The oral reference doses for mercury in the vulnerable and general population are 1 × 10 −4 and 3 × 10 −4 mg/kg per day, respectively [35,36]. Therefore, there is a need to send out a message to this vulnerable group about the health hazard they are encountering daily by consumption of food contaminated with mercury.…”