Hsi et al. 2016 - Methylmercury Concentration in Fish and Risk-Benefit Assessment of Fish Intake among Pregnant versus Infertile Women in Taiwan
This study measured methylmercury in fish and used those values in a risk-benefit assessment for pregnant and infertile women in Taiwan.
Key numbers
Source units are mg/kg for fish methylmercury.
- Swordfish MeHg: 0.28 +/- 0.23.
- Tuna MeHg: 0.14 +/- 0.13.
- The measured fish MeHg concentrations did not exceed the Codex guideline level of 1 mg/kg.
- Hair MeHg: infertile women 1.82 +/- 0.14 mg/kg; pregnant women 1.24 +/- 0.18 mg/kg.
- 80% of infertile women and 68% of pregnant women exceeded the USEPA reference-dose hair concentration of 1 mg/kg.
Methods
The paper measured fish MeHg and participant hair MeHg and estimated daily MeHg exposure doses alongside omega-3 fatty-acid risk-benefit metrics.
Implications
Swordfish and tuna MeHg values are routeable to seafood occurrence context. Human hair values are exposure/biomonitoring context, not product occurrence.
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Verification notes
- Source identity checked against DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0155704 and the downloaded PDF.
- The page preserves methylmercury speciation; do not mix these values with total mercury without explicit species handling.
Page history
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