ASSESSING HUMAN RISKS AND BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH MERCURY CONTAMINATION

Overview

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Key numbers

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mg/kg) > European eel (0.160 mg/kg) ≈ roach (0.100 mg/kg) (P<0.05). A positive correlation was found between the mercury content and
and decreases the phospholipids, cholesterol, and esteri- The detection limit (LOD): 0.02 μg/kg.
blood vessels (Ulbricht and Southgate, 1991; Monteiro recovery rate of Hg: 100.2% (n=4).
diovascular health (CVH). EPA + DHA (eicosapentae- X(%) = (b – c/a – c) × 100
Linnaeus, 1758) (n=14), Eurasian perch (Perca fluvia- The content of fat (%) was calculated according to the
in the Warmia and Mazury region (the north-east of Po- X(%) = ((b – a) × 100) / c
tograph with a flame-ionization detector (FID) under the RfD – the oral reference dose (RfD = 3.00E-04 mg/kg/
Total length (cm) 27.06±4.81 0.9459 0.8580 Data are presented as means ± standard deviation
(±SD, n=14). Analysis of the results was performed us-
Hg (mg/kg) 0.8580 0.9473
European eel (n=14) was confirmed by Shapiro–Wilk test and the homogene-
Hg (mg/kg) 0.8509 0.8163
Water (%) component analysis (PCA) and a 2-D Biplot were pre-
Hg (mg/kg) 0.8631 0.9227
(34.52 g/person/day; BW – the average body weight (70 higher amounts of mercury (0.297 mg/kg) than other
Target hazard quotient (THQ) (Ahmed et al., 2016) eel having a slightly higher content (0.160 mg/kg)
than roach (0.100 mg/kg). In all cases, there was
Table 1. Nutritional indices
FLQ Flesh-lipid quality 100 × (EPA+DHA)/(% of total fatty acids) (Abrami et al., 1992; Senso et
PI Peroxidizability index 0.025× (%monoenoic)+1×(%dienoic)+2×(%trienoic)+ (Zula et al., 2021)
Health risk assessment (P>0.05) (Table 4). The percentage of MUFA in mus-
permissible standards of 0.5 mg/kg for roach and perch, lar trend was observed in the case of ∑ HUFA (highly
Figure 1. Interspecific differences (mean ± SD) in the concentration of mercury in fish examined.
Table 3. The hazard quotient calculated for mercury content in the muscle tissue of fish
THQ – target hazard quotient; RfD – oral reference dose (mg/kg/day) (US EPA 2022); HI – hazardous index; BRQ – benefit–risk quotient;
Table 4. Fatty acid contents (% of total fatty acids) and nutritional indices in the muscle lipids of the studied fish
Table 5. Fatty acid contents (expressed as mg/g of muscles) and indices of the studied fish
and roach (P>0.05) (Table 4). The opposite regularity significant differences between the fish studied.
of muscles) than other fish examined (P≤0.05) (Table 5). tion of mercury in predatory fish is higher than in ben-
(Table 6). For Factor 2, a significant correlation between of roach from Vistula Lagoon (Poland) and feeding on
cumulates and biomagnifies easily in the food chain, (north-eastern Poland) was 0.415 mg/kg (Luczynska et
Table 6. Values of the charge factors and their respective contribution to the total variance after performing a PCA analysis (Principal compo-
0.10 and 1.23 mg/kg (Rask et al., 2021). According et al. (2021) found that predatory fish such as perch
varied at three sites (river, lake and Gulf of Riga) and tion of mercury in their muscle tissue (0.216 mg/kg)
was 188.2, 154.2 and 110.8 µg/kg, respectively. The compared to non-predatory fish like roach (0.123 mg/
this species to inhabit a wide range of feeding grounds Luczynska et al., 2020).
Table 7. Review of nutritional indices in the muscle lipids of different fish species
connected with the Sawica River (north-eastern Poland) perch and other fish (Bulgaria) was below 0.5 mg/kg as
ska et al., 2023). In Table 2, a stronger correlation was by various health organizations and is acceptable for hu-
term use of fish for food purposes and the risk of mer- the abundant group of fatty acids was SFA (48.43%), fol-
cury bioaccumulation to human health should be taken lowed by MUFA (28.05%), n-6 PUFA (16.87%) and n-3
into account in the case of the consumption of these fish PUFA (5.72%). The ratio of n-3/n-6 was less than 1.0

Methods (brief)

atomic absorption thermal decomposition using Milestone DMA-80 (Italy), whereas fatty acids were measured by gas chromatography
dex, whereas the saturated fatty acids C12:0, C14:0 and performed on disposable plastic plates. The samples were
rated) and anti-thrombogenic fatty acids (monounsaturat- tion thermal decomposition using Milestone DMA-80
saturated fatty acids (PUFA/SFA) ratio. This is because able autosampler. Total mercury was measured under the
and decreases the phospholipids, cholesterol, and esteri- The detection limit (LOD): 0.02 μg/kg.
dices, PUFA/SFA, AI, TI, HH (hypocholesterolemic/ Approximately 1 g samples (± 0.0001 g) in duplicate
are rich in n-3 PUFAs. analyzed sample before drying (g); b – mass of a quartz
The aim of the research was to determine the ben- evaporation dish with the analyzed sample after drying
contamination of the tested species with mercury. In ad- Approximately 1 g samples (±0.0001 g) in duplicate
the concentration of this metal in the muscles of fish was ter drying, the samples were transferred to glass tubes with
Sampling and sample preparation collected in the tank. Fat was dried in a beaker at 100°C to
Linnaeus, 1758) (n=14) were sampled from a reservoir
ble 2). Muscles (without skin) from the dorsal part were extracted fat (g), c – weight of samples (g).
(100:100:1 v/v) (Zegarska et al., 1991). All samples were BW – the average body weight of local residents (70 kg);
peaks in the test sample.
The THQ and HI as individual foodstuffs collected from discriminating between feeding behaviors and determin-
Balzani P., Haubrock P.J., Russo F., Kouba A., Haase P., Vesely L., Fernandes Azevedo B., Barros Furieri L., Peçanha F.M., Wiggers
ron. Res. Public Health, 17: 2545. tion, fatty acid profile and total amino acid contents in samples of

Implications

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Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.

Commit	Date	Change	Description
b01ec52c	2026-08-04	major	2 sections added
d49e450f	2026-08-03	major	5 sections added; narrative text revised