The mercury burden of the Czech population: An integrated approach

Human Biomonitoring Study - Toxic Elements in Blood of Women

“…The difference between men and women with higher values in women found in the first period (3) was confirmed also in the second period (16). Time trends in blood mercury levels in women over both periods can be seen in Fig.…”

Mercury in Children: Current State on Exposure through Human Biomonitoring Studies

“…Examples of national cross-sectional HBM surveys are those from the Czech Republic HBM program (Cz-HBM) [82,83], the German Environmental Survey (GerES) [84,85], Flemish Environment and Health Study (FLESH) [86], the French National Survey on Nutrition and Health (Etude Nationale Nutrition Santé, ENNS) [87], the Italian HBM survey [88,89], the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) [97], the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) [98]. Individual and smaller research studies, were also take into account in order to compare the Hg levels among different countries.…”

“…Among the European populations significant variation in the hair total Hg level in children was depicted, with the highest Geometric Mean (GM) value in Spain (1.41 µg/L), Greece (1.36 µg/L), and Italy (median value: 0.78 µg/L), and France (0.37 µg/L), and approximately the same lower level (about 0.19 µg/L) in Belgium, Slovenia, and Czech Republic [35,83,86,87,89,91,92]. France survey conducted in 2006–2007 also indicated that some children present a P95 value (1.2 µg/L) above the 1.0 μg/g threshold level proposed by NRC [46,87].…”

“…Blood Hg concentrations in children of the National European surveys were around 1 µg/L, with the highest central values found in Italy (GM: 0.84 µg/L), Slovenia (GM: 0.77 µg/L) and Sweden (median value: 1.1 µg/L), and lowest values in Czech Republic (GM: 0.45 µg/L) and Germany (GM: 0.23 µg/L) [83,85,88,92,93]. Moreover, also a smaller Swedish longitudinal study (98 neonates enrolled) showed that P95 value of MeHg in blood was above the USEPA’s threshold limit (3.5 µg/L) [94].…”

“…Geometric urinary mean in children enrolled during the older Germany survey in 1990–1992 GM: 0.54 μg/L) was higher than that in children enrolled in 2003–2006 (GM: <0.1 μg/L) [84,85]; the concomitant reduction of dental amalgam use in children could be the reason of this trend [109]. Children of Czech Republic also showed the same trend, with a GM values (0.45 µg/L) above the RV 95 value during the period 2001–2003 [82], and a declining tendency in the newer monitoring period in 2008–2009 (0.26 µg/L) [83]. Values lower than the RV 95 were observed for the US children population during the period 2007–2012 [97].…”