Estimation of methylmercury intake from the 2007 Chinese Total Diet Study

Abstract

Methylmercury intake for adult males of twelve provinces in China was estimated by means of the 2007 Chinese Total Diet Study. Methylmercury levels were measured in twelve food groups of each province of four regions and was only found in the aquatic food groups. The range for methylmercury contents of aquatic foods was 3.29–31.60 µg kg⁻¹, being 50–87% of total mercury. Methylmercury intakes from aquatic foods for adult males of twelve provinces ranged from 0.003 to 0.138 µg kg⁻¹ bw week⁻¹ with average of 0.041 µg kg⁻¹ bw week⁻¹, which were estimated according to methylmercury contents and corresponding aquatic food consumption. Methylmercury intakes for the Chinese population were far below the corresponding provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), which was established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Consequently, there was little health risk from methylmercury exposure for the average Chinese population.

Keywords:

• cooked foods
• heavy metals
• mercury

Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National High-tech Research and Development Research Project (Grant Number 2006AA06Z043) and by the National Key Technologies Research and Development Program (Grant Number 2006BAK02A10). The authors also express their appreciation to the twelve provincial health teams that carried out all the fieldwork.