Early-life mercury exposure and

Overview

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Key numbers

The worker extracted the full PDF text with layout preservation twice and compared extraction hashes before commit. The following lines are copied from numeric/table-bearing regions of the PDF and retain the source units and wording where legible:

distribution or reproduction in other exposed children was 6.2% (95% CI, 1.8–18.8%) for asthma, 18.6% (95% CI, 9.0–
original author(s) and the copyright CI, 3.3–50.9%) for allergic rhinitis, and 22.3% (95% CI, 13.2–35.2%) for wheezing.
original publication in this journal is Heterogeneity was high (I² > 90%). Studies from East Asia, which reported higher
Children are particularly vulnerable because of their higher exposure analyses (PRISMA) guideline (Supplementary Table S1).
interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 expression, mediators central to and (4) provided extractable data on the number or proportion of
Europe, Asia, and North America were included (Table 1). Most
Pooled proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were maternal blood, child blood, urine, or hair samples, reflecting both
quantified using τ2 and I 2 statistics. duration (Table 1), with three (16, 20, 21) further examining its role
Carrasco et al. Spain Cord blood and Geometric mean cord blood 15.9% of mothers reported active smoking 14.7% without 52.5 ± 2.3 Questionnaire; Wheezing 22.6%; Eczema
(16) children’s hair mercury: 8.2 μg/L; geometric mean during pregnancy, 60.1% reported passive breastfeeding, 44.3% with months at the 16.6%
of Hg in the 4-year old children’s smoking exposure, and 47.7% had a family over 6-month evaluation No significant association was reached.
Heinrich et al. Korea Children’s blood and Mean blood mercury geometric 33% reported passive smoking exposure, and Not reported 7–8 years old Questionnaire; Hg at 7–8 y associated with
(17) urine means: 2.02 µg/L at 7–8 years, 7% had a family history of asthma. asthma at 9–10 y (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2–2.1)
Hon et al. (18) China Children’s blood Mean mercury concentration: Not reported Not reported mean age 9.9 Physician diagnosis; no significant
(HongKong) 3.03 ± 2.33 µg/L yr, s.d. 4.6 y association was found
Jedrychowski Poland Cord blood, maternal Mean cord blood mercury Maternal age 27.8 ± 3.4 years; cotinine and 55.1% with breastfeeding 5 years Skin-prick testing; no significant association
et al. (19) blood at delivery concentration: 8.8 µg/L (95% CI PAH adducts measured as co-exposures; exclusive over 3 months between cord blood mercury and atopy (RR
8.1–9.5); maternal blood: 6.0 μg/L smoking not reported 1.11 (0.68–1.80))
Kampouri Greece Maternal blood and Mean maternal blood mercury: 69% parental allergy; 6% maternal smoking; 88% breastfeeding between 1 year Physician diagnosis; asthma (n = 39/428)
et al. (20) children’s blood 1.82 ± 1.30 µg/L; infant blood socioeconomic and dietary data collected at 4 months and food allergy (n = 33/449); no association
mercury: 1.02 ± 0.92 µg/L with gestational mercury (fully adjusted OR
Kim et al. (22) Korea Children’s blood Mean mercury concentration: 2% parental allergy; no smoking data Not reported Not specified Skin-prick testing; blood mercury positively
2.4 ± 0.9 µg/L reported (school-aged associated with allergic sensitisation
Kim et al. (23) Korea Children’s blood Geometric mean blood mercury 32% passive smoking; 2% maternal asthma; Not reported 7–12 years Questionnaire; blood mercury at 7–8 years
2.02 µg/L at 7–8 years, 1.79 µg/L at 2% paternal asthma associated with asthma up to 9–10 years
years (OR 1.3 (95% CI 1.0–1.6)); significant in
Kim et al. (21) Korea Cord blood Median mercury 7.2 µg/L (range 28.7% maternal allergic disease; smoking not Not reported 60 months Physician diagnosis; no significant
1.6–71.5 µg/L) reported (range, 24.0– association between cord blood mercury
32% with exclusive breastfeeding during the 69.0 months) and atopic dermatitis (multivariable HR
TABLE 1 Continued Liang et al.
Lee et al. (25) Korea Maternal blood Mean maternal mercury 3.5% maternal allergy; smoking not reported Not reported 6 months Questionnaire; incidence rate of AD was
and 3.07 ± 1.61 µg/L in late boys and 26.3% in girls. Higher mercury
Lee et al. (24) Korea Urine Geometric mean total urinary Not reported smoking and family history Not reported 6-11 years Questionnaire; urinary mercury positively
mercury 0.401 µg/L (3rd cycle) and associated with atopic dermatitis (cycle 3
1.21 (95% CI 0.64–2.29)) and with asthma
Miyake et al. Japan Children’s Hair Children’s hair mercury range 0.13– Maternal allergy 43.1%; paternal allergy maternal age 30.2 ± 3.9 y 29 to 39 months Questionnaire; no significant association
05 (26) 9.51 µg/g, median 1.38 µg/g (95th 31.8%; maternal smoking during pregnancy 76% with >= 6-month between child hair mercury and wheeze
3.74) 11.3%; maternal fish intake 48.7 ± 27.1 g/day breastfeeding (adjusted OR 1.09 (95% CI 0.90–1.31)) or
Miyazaki et al. Japan Maternal blood Mean ± SD 4.21 ± 2.49 µg/L Mean maternal age 31.0 years; mean fish Not reported 1–3 years Questionnaire; atopic dermatitis 15.5%,
(27) (median 3.64 (IQR 2.54–5.20); intake 33.9 g/day; 10.8% had pre-pregnancy food allergy 4.8%, asthma 10.8%, allergic
range 0.18–58.80 µg/L) BMI ≥25 kg/m2; maternal history of rhinitis 35.6%; higher maternal Hg
dermatitis 15.5%, food allergy 4.8%, asthma associated with increased risk of AD (aOR

Methods (brief)

antioxidant defence systems, and alter cytokine profiles. Low-dose using biological samples (e.g., cord blood, maternal blood, urine, or
Observational studies have reported divergent findings. This country, study design, and sample size), participant characteristics
Pooled proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were maternal blood, child blood, urine, or hair samples, reflecting both
et al. (20) children’s blood 1.82 ± 1.30 µg/L; infant blood socioeconomic and dietary data collected at 4 months and food allergy (n = 33/449); no association
Atopic dermatitis and eczema (26) using children’s hair samples also reported no relationship
measured in blood, urine, or maternal samples, and these could partly account for the higher proportions of allergic
mercury exposure and allergic disorders in Korean children: Korean national 39. Bjørklund G, Peana M, Dadar M, Chirumbolo S, Aaseth J, Martins N. Mercury-

Implications

This page makes the source discoverable for category-level evidence routing. Values remain source-native and should be used only with the stated matrix, species, basis, geography, and censoring context from the paper. The page does not convert total mercury to methylmercury or use total arsenic as inorganic arsenic.

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Verification notes

Identity check: DOI, raw handle, candidate cite-key, and SHA-256 were compared against existing wiki/sources/ pages before creation.
Full-PDF read: pdftotext -layout was run on the full PDF twice; extracted text hashes matched before the page was written.
Numeric verification: numeric/table-bearing lines were selected mechanically from the verified extraction and preserved without unit conversion or rounding.
Brand firewall: the worker skips PDFs when extracted numeric lines appear brand/manufacturer-sensitive; this page contains category-level or species-level evidence only.
HMTc firewall: no threshold, percentile, pass/fail, clean/dirty, or certification math is stated.

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