HEALTH-EFFECTS OF MERCURY INGESTED THROUGH CONSUMPTION OF SEAFOOD

It is known world-wide literature that seafood consumption is the main source of mercury intake in people not occupationally exposed. Severa l studies on the presence of mercury in sea water, sediment and fish a nd its effects on human health have been carried out in many countries in the Mediterranean area such as Greece, Italy and Jugoslavia. Few d ata have been published on Sicilian coastal population, consumers of h igh amounts of fish and on seawater status as the starting point of al imentary chains involving marine food. This study was carried out in J uly 1991 and July 1992 to determine total mercury and methylmercury le vels in selected populations of the coast of Sicily: fishermen in a li ttle island, Favignana, located west of Sicily, where the population c an be considered at risk due to its high fish intake, and fishermen of a small fishing village (Porticello), near Palermo, As a control grou p, a sample population in a town located in the middle of Sicily (Vall edolmo), where consumption of fish and seafood was quite inexistent an d an urban population (inhabitants of Palermo) with variable quantitie s of seafood in diet were taken, Following the guidelines of WHO (1982 ) the subjects were interviewed by a dietary questionnaire. One hundre d and twenty three hair samples, cut from the occipital area, were ana lysed for total mercury and methylmercury concentrations, Following th e standard procotol for mercury analysis in hair, only those specimens exceeding 10 mu g/g total Hg were analysed for methylmercury content. The results of study on 98 fishermen and their families with hair sam ples have shown that the dietetical weekly intake of seafood is relate d to the concentration values of total mercury and methylmercury that were found in the analysis, Only 19 subjects have been found with tota l mercury concentration values above the security level (> 6 mu g/g to tal Hg) and 8 have been analysed for methylmercury. From our data, it appears that in this Sicilian area, when there aren't industrial and n atural sources of Hg, even if the population eats a large amount of lo cally caught fish, the concentration of Hg found in hair samples never reaches risk levels.