An overview of worldwide and regional time trends in total mercury levels in human blood and breast milk from 1966 to 2015 and their associations with health effects
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F19%3A00110374" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/19:00110374 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018318816?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018318816?via%3Dihub</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.12.016" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.envint.2018.12.016</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
An overview of worldwide and regional time trends in total mercury levels in human blood and breast milk from 1966 to 2015 and their associations with health effects
Original language description
Background: Mercury is a pollutant of global concern. To protect human health and environment from mercury pollution, the Minamata Convention on mercury entered into force in 2017. Objectives: To support a future effectiveness evaluation of the convention, this study assesses worldwide and regional time trends of total mercury levels in human blood and breast milk across different population sub-groups in the last half-century prior to entry-into-force of the Minamata Convention. This study also provides an overview of the epidemiological literature showing evidence of associations between mercury exposure (in terms of total mercury levels in whole blood, cord blood, and breast milk) and human health. Methods: We searched electronic databases to identify articles published prior to June 14, 2017 and reported total mercury levels in any of three biological matrices (whole blood, cord blood, or breast milk) and/or associations with human health. Temporal trends of total mercury levels in the selected biological matrices across different population sub-groups were estimated using a linear fit of the log-transformed data. In parallel, statistical methods were employed to assess any possible effect of sources of inhomogeneity (i.e. study and population characteristics such as age, sex, ethnicity, source of exposure, sampling period, and geographical region) in the collected studies. Furthermore, a summary of significant and relevant associations between mercury exposure and human health conditions in children and adults was prepared. Findings: We found significant declines in total mercury levels in whole blood, cord blood, and breast milk between 1966 and 2015. A regional overview of total mercury levels in whole blood, cord blood, and breast milk suggests the highest levels in South America, followed by Africa or Asia whereas the population groups from Europe or North America displayed the lowest levels of total mercury in the selected biological matrices. We observed conclusive consistent associations of mercury exposure with selected health conditions, especially neurodevelopment and neurotoxicity in children and adults. For several other health conditions, reported findings in the collected studies do not support conclusive associations. We also found that several studies demonstrated significant associations between mercury exposure below the USEPA reference level and various health conditions. Conclusions: This study provides a worldwide and regional overview of trends in total mercury levels in human blood and breast milk and associated health risks prior to entry-into-force of the Minamata Convention and calls for further epidemiological investigations from across the globe to fully understand the health implications of mercury exposure.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)
Result continuities
Project
Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2019
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Environment International
ISSN
0160-4120
e-ISSN
1873-6750
Volume of the periodical
125
Issue of the periodical within the volume
April
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
20
Pages from-to
300-319
UT code for WoS article
000459005200031
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85061006767