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Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon

Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the main source of anthropogenic mercury emissions and contamination in Latin America. In the Brazilian northern Amazon, ASGM has contaminated the environment and people over the past century. The main contamination route is through fish consumption, which...

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Autores principales: Hacon, Sandra de Souza, Oliveira-da-Costa, Marcelo, Gama, Cecile de Souza, Ferreira, Renata, Basta, Paulo Cesar, Schramm, Ana, Yokota, Decio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32707799
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155269
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author Hacon, Sandra de Souza
Oliveira-da-Costa, Marcelo
Gama, Cecile de Souza
Ferreira, Renata
Basta, Paulo Cesar
Schramm, Ana
Yokota, Decio
author_facet Hacon, Sandra de Souza
Oliveira-da-Costa, Marcelo
Gama, Cecile de Souza
Ferreira, Renata
Basta, Paulo Cesar
Schramm, Ana
Yokota, Decio
author_sort Hacon, Sandra de Souza
collection PubMed
description Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the main source of anthropogenic mercury emissions and contamination in Latin America. In the Brazilian northern Amazon, ASGM has contaminated the environment and people over the past century. The main contamination route is through fish consumption, which endangers the food security and livelihoods of traditional communities. Our study aims to assess the potential toxicological health risks caused by the consumption of Hg-contaminated fish across five regions in Amapá State. We sampled 428 fish from 18 sites across inland and coastal aquatic systems. We measured the total mercury content in fish samples, and the results were applied to a mercury exposure risk assessment targeting three distinct groups (adults, women of childbearing age, and children). Mercury contamination was found to exceed the World Health Organization’s safe limit in 28.7% of all fish samples, with higher prevalence in inland zones. Moreover, the local preference for carnivorous fish species presents a serious health risk, particularly for communities near inland rivers in the region. This is the first study to provide clear recommendations for reducing the mercury exposure through fish consumption in Amapá State. It builds scientific evidence that helps decision-makers to implement effective policies for protecting the health of riverine communities.
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spelling pubmed-74321072020-08-24 Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon Hacon, Sandra de Souza Oliveira-da-Costa, Marcelo Gama, Cecile de Souza Ferreira, Renata Basta, Paulo Cesar Schramm, Ana Yokota, Decio Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the main source of anthropogenic mercury emissions and contamination in Latin America. In the Brazilian northern Amazon, ASGM has contaminated the environment and people over the past century. The main contamination route is through fish consumption, which endangers the food security and livelihoods of traditional communities. Our study aims to assess the potential toxicological health risks caused by the consumption of Hg-contaminated fish across five regions in Amapá State. We sampled 428 fish from 18 sites across inland and coastal aquatic systems. We measured the total mercury content in fish samples, and the results were applied to a mercury exposure risk assessment targeting three distinct groups (adults, women of childbearing age, and children). Mercury contamination was found to exceed the World Health Organization’s safe limit in 28.7% of all fish samples, with higher prevalence in inland zones. Moreover, the local preference for carnivorous fish species presents a serious health risk, particularly for communities near inland rivers in the region. This is the first study to provide clear recommendations for reducing the mercury exposure through fish consumption in Amapá State. It builds scientific evidence that helps decision-makers to implement effective policies for protecting the health of riverine communities. MDPI 2020-07-22 2020-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7432107/ /pubmed/32707799 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155269 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hacon, Sandra de Souza
Oliveira-da-Costa, Marcelo
Gama, Cecile de Souza
Ferreira, Renata
Basta, Paulo Cesar
Schramm, Ana
Yokota, Decio
Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon
title Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon
title_full Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon
title_fullStr Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon
title_full_unstemmed Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon
title_short Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption in Traditional Communities in the Brazilian Northern Amazon
title_sort mercury exposure through fish consumption in traditional communities in the brazilian northern amazon
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32707799
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155269
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