assessed the risks and beneﬁts of selenium (Se) from ﬁsh and seafood, few have examined its intake from common foods and its

Overview

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Results: Overall, 42.4% of children had hair Hg levels above the US Environmental Protection Agency’s reference dose of 1 µg/g,
inert Hg-Se complexes that render Se unavailable for fur- proximately 90%–100% of total Hg accumulated in ﬁsh
typically accounts for about 80% of total Hg in hair (17). children to assess the internal exposure dose of Hg. Taipei
previous results revealing that 80%–90% of Hg exposure 2.2 Anthropometric survey data
nerable groups such as preschoolers and women of child- THg and Se measurements respectively ranged 0.06%–
Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to (1) was 98.1%–107.6%. Method detection limits (MDLs), cal-
2.1 Study population and food consumption data sample was added 5 mL of 69% nitric acid (J.T. Bakerμ,
0.04%–6.8%, with accuracies of 92.1%–112%. The MDL (RfD) for dietary Hg established by the Food and Agricul-
2.4 Risk-beneﬁt assessment (JECFA) is 0.23 µg/kg-BW/day (32).
health beneﬁt of dietary Se intake considering the hazard 0.0001 mg/kg/day; Se: 0.005 mg/kg/day), Ci is the concen-
where Ci is the level of THg or Se (mg/kg) in each cat- 2.5 Nutrient contents of foods
2.4.3 Health risk Continuous variables are presented as the mean « standard
model. The ﬁnal model, with growth outcome indicators as average weight was 13.9 « 6.3 kg. The mean Hg concen-
pendent variables, was adjusted for high or low Hg expo- 42.4% of the children having hair Hg levels exceeding
(0.408 « 0.192 mg/kg ww), whereas lowest values were
3.1 Population characteristics and Se and Hg found in fruits (0.002 « 0.002 mg/kg ww). Se concen-
shown in Table 1. Among the 349 subjects, the average ucts > eggs. Speciﬁcally, the mean Hg concentration in
age was 2.9 « 1.8 years. Of these, 54.0% were male and ﬁsh was 0.078 « 0.072 mg/kg ww. Within ﬁsh, Hg levels
46.0% were female. Less than half of the families (42.1%) in marine species (mean: 0.093 « 0.081 mg/kg, ww) were
height of the children was 91.7 « 17.1 cm, while their 0.044 « 0.033 mg/kg, ww). Hg contents in eggs were 5.5-
Male 188 (54.0%) 3.2 Risk-beneﬁt assessment and related AISe
Female 161 (46.0%) percentages
2 120 (34.5%) HBVSe values were found in eggs and ﬁsh, at 6.48 and
²3 18 (5.0%) 5.14, respectively. Negative HBVSe values and Se:Hg mo-
<2300 101 (28.9%) Se contribution was oﬀset by Se-rich foods such as eggs
2300³3300 101 (28.9%) and ﬁsh, leading to an overall positive dietary Se balance.
¯1 µg/g 201 (57.6%) sidered healthy and a good source of Se (Table 2).
1 µg/g 148 (42.4%) Figure 1 illustrates the association between Hg concen-
Table 2 Mercury and selenium concentrations, molar ratios, and health beneﬁt value (HBVSe) in diﬀerent foods
Fig. 1 Relationship between mercury (Hg) concentrations (mg/kg) and selenium’s health beneﬁt value (HBVSe) in food.
Table 3 Estimated selenium intake, adequate intake compliance, and adjustments for mercury exposure in children
plus of Se and help reduce risks of Hg exposure. Table S2 provides the estimated maximum safe daily
Table 3 reveals the dietary Se EDI, the percentage of intake (CRlim) and monthly safe consumption limits
imately 87%–90% of AISe among preschool children in consumption limits among all food categories. The esti-
can still meet 80%–84% of the AISe. Plant-based foods like water ﬁsh. In contrast, Se-based CRmm values were sig-
fruits, leafy vegetables, and non-leafy vegetables had low- niﬁcantly higher, exceeding 100 servings per month for
0.01, 95% conﬁdence interval (CI): ¹0.00001 to 0.02) levels of ½-3 PUFAs, including docosahexaenoic acid
was negative, with an average value of ¹2.53%, and was Preschool children consuming any of the three foods
negatively associated with height (¢ = ¹0.41, 95% CI: listed that meet the recommended daily Se intake did not
ﬁcial for preschoolers’ health. ﬁsh was 0.408 « 0.192 mg/kg ww. This result was similar
1. Discussion of the Adriatic Sea, with a mean value of 0.49 mg/kg ww
According to our ﬁndings, 42.4% of Taiwanese children in mg/kg ww (25). On the other hand, it was lower compared

Methods (brief)

assessment of Se intake. Hg exposure was evaluated using hair samples from 349 preschool children enrolled between August 2017
and placenta, posing signiﬁcant risks to neurodevelop- collected using a structured questionnaire. A food fre-
rate of approximately 1 cm/month (16). Moreover, MeHg plemental Fig. S1). Hair samples were collected from all
value of Se (HBVSe) index, which accounts for the impacts samples were collected and grouped into 11 categories.
sumption from food and the reduced adverse eﬀects of Hg termined using cold-vapor atomic absorption spectropho-
(27). Many studies revealed a beneﬁt-risk assessment of tometry (CVAAS; HG-200, Hiranuma, Mito, Japan), while
surveys evaluated the beneﬁt-risk assessment of dietary plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; Agilent 7800, Agilent
and growth performance; and (5) identify optimal foods THg contents in hair samples were measured following a
method 1631E (30). Hair samples were taken from the
2.1 Study population and food consumption data sample was added 5 mL of 69% nitric acid (J.T. Bakerμ,
In total, 349 preschool children were enrolled between THg levels were analyzed using CVAAS (HG-200,
Se levels in fruit samples (43). Therefore, the majority of Among all of the food samples analyzed, the highest Hg
samples, 54% exhibited Hg concentrations higher than maternal and fetal Se statuses while providing nutritional
that 70% of samples from ﬁsh markets in Taiwan had that the ingestion of Se in marine ﬁsh may provide pro-
mercury concentrations in seafood collected from Zhoushan Islands, 30. USEPA. Method 1631, Revision E: Mercury in Water by Oxidation, Purge
Zhejiang, China, and their potential health risk for the ﬁshing community: and Trap, and Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry; 2002.
1. Grgec AS, Kljaković-Gašpić Z, Orct T, Tičina V, Sekovanić A, Jurasović J, samples of wild Atlantic blueﬁn tuna from the Mediterranean Sea. Chemo-

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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