The tropical African mercury anomaly: Lower than expected mercury concentrations in fish and human hair

Food web structure and mercury trophodynamics in two contrasting embayments in northern Lake Victoria

“…Our results are also consistent with previous reports that mercury concentrations in fish from African lakes tend to be low (as reviewed by Black et al, 2011). This may be attributable to several factors including shorter life spans and higher growth rates of tropical fish relative to temperate fish (Harris and Bodaly, 1998;Kidd et al, 2003), and relatively short food chain lengths (as observed in the current study); however, there remain many unknowns with respect to Hg biogeochemistry, bioavailability and trophodynamics in tropical lakes.…”

Mercury Human Exposure in Populations Living Around Lake Tana (Ethiopia)

“…2), without significant differences between male and females. As compared to other African country studies in Botswana (mean ± SD 0.22 ± 0.21 μg/g) [3] (ranges between 48.2 and 953 μg/g; mean value > 2 μg/g, respectively), Tanzania [18,20] (ranged from <0.1 to 54.8 μg/g), and South Africa [34], this study participant had very low THg in hair. In addition, our study participants had lower hair Hg than that of studies in Romania (median 1.1 μg/g) [5], Indonesia (mean ranging between 13 and 17 μg/g) [4], and USA (mean value ranging between 0.2 and 0.38 μg/g) [23].…”

“…A similar study by Bełdowska and Falkowska [2] had also resulted in a similar conclusion with this study. The levels of THg in hair in the anglers and their families were similar to the anglers in Botswana with similar but slightly higher fish consumption by fishermen in Arbamench, Hawassa, and Zieway (on average, once and twice a day on some days) [30] and the Okavango River (mean ± SD 3.2 ± 2.2 fish/week) in Botswana [3].…”

“…Despite that high THg concentrations have been reported on THg survey in fish from Lake Tana, it is important to highlight the low Hg exposure of volunteers. Most of the studies have associated high exposure to Hg with high fish consumption [1,3,5]. However, populations living around Lake Tana seem to consume fish rarely (Fig.…”

Global methylmercury exposure from seafood consumption and risk of developmental neurotoxicity: a systematic review

“…74,75 Chile, 76 China, [77][78][79][80][81] Colombia, 82 Italy, 83,84 Kazakhstan, 85 Mexico, 87 Morocco, 88 Nicaragua, 89 Norway, 115 the Republic of Korea, 86 Romania, 90 Slovakia, 81,91 Sweden, 92 Taiwan, China, 93 the United States 94 and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), 95 the pooled central THHg median biomarker was 0.8 µg/g (upper bound: 4.6). In 14 subpopulations consuming fish periodically from non-industry-contaminated waters in Botswana, 96 Canada, [97][98][99][100][101][102] Norway, 115 Portugal, 117 Spain, 118 Sweden, 81,92,[112][113][114]119 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 120,121 and the United States 122-131 was 0.4 µg/g (upper bound: 2.9). For 27 subpopulations from the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean (combined because of similar THHg ranges and referred to as "Mediterranean") in Albania, 132 Croatia, 133 Greece, …”