Total, organic, and inorganic mercury in human breast milk: levels and maternal factors of exposure, systematic literature review, 1976–2017

Abstract

This systematic review summarizes the finding of 58 studies from 33 countries, which assessed mercury concentrations in breast milk and the factors related to the level of contamination. We performed a literature search in Pubmed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases for studies published between 1976 and 2017 that are monitoring and measuring mercury in human breast milk and investigating the associated factors. Then, we extracted more information about the aim of the study, the country, samples size, time of lactation, mercury concentration, and other data. Most of the studies used mature milk or colostrum for analysis and in about 60% of them, the concentrations exceed significantly the limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 1.7 µg/l; In addition, many factors and parameters were related to the level of mercury contamination in breast milk. Periodic monitoring surveys are recommended in each country to evaluate the level of mercury in milk of lactating women and to estimate the level of exposure of newborns.

Keywords:

• Mercury
• levels
• factors
• breast milk

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the critical reading of the paper by Pr Ibrahim MOJEMMI from the faculty of medicine and pharmacy of Rabat. Authors acknowledge also the relevant comments of the anonymous reviewers, which helped the authors to improve the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

There are no conflicts of interest associated with this systematic review, which is a pure academic research work. No financial support was provided for this work that could influence its outcome. The authors have sole responsibility for the writing and content of the paper.