OPEN ACCESS mercury through fish

Overview

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Key numbers

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2015 released 20.5% of global anthropogenic Hg air emissions, of This systematic review with a quantitative analysis focus was
alone accounted for 53% of the estimated 1,220 t of Hg released fish in LAC countries was conducted on Web of Science1 and Google
the cycling of Hg deposited from the atmosphere since its methylation information after this year (Table 1).
toxicity (Al-Sulaiti et al., 2022). More than 85–90% of the Hg found in state if the concentrations were dry weight (dw) or wet weight (ww)
above the risk threshold level of 0.95 μg g−1 ww according to MIA and carnivore; Supplementary Table S1). In addition, the classification
reported evidence obtained in LAC indicates associations between  100 − % H 
Olivero-Verbel, 2020). of interest measured in wet and dry tissue respectively, and %H is the
It is widely known that human exposure to high levels of MeHg/ percentage of humidity in wet tissues (~80% for most of the species).
MeHg conversion factor has been applied according to the Guidance fishes were found in around 55% of LAC countries including, from
(USEPA, 2011) which assumes that 95% of the Hg concentration Costa Rica, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Suriname,
calculated with Equation 3, based on (Vieira et al., 2021): from 0.002 to 2.218 μg g−1 ww (Supplementary Table S1). Most of the
species were found in freshwater ecosystems; specifically, rivers (45%),
follows: species from coastal environments (36.9%), coastal/oceanic
environments (3.7%), oceanic species (2%), and estuaries (2.2%). The
based on a 2000 cal diet according to the Dietary Guidelines for benthopelagic (45.6%) and benthic (36.4%), and a smaller portion is
Americans (2015–2020). Body weight (BW) was obtained from the pelagic (18%).
population in each country analyzed according to sex (BWW: women’s a significant impact on the THg (Mood’s median test, p-value = 0.058),
2.3 Data analysis (Mood’s median test, p-value <0.001; Supplementary Tables S2, S3).
THg concentration is presented as median ± range (μg g−1 ww, between species with different diet preferences. Carnivorous fish had
Supplementary Figure S1). The Mood’s median test was used to significantly higher THg content than detritivores, herbivores, or
estimate statistical differences (p = 0.05) in THg concentrations among omnivorous fishes (Mood’s median test p-value <0.001,
(Supplementary Table S2). Further analyses were applied (Mood’s last three groups, regardless of the habitat. Fish species showing THg
0.95 μg g−1 (ww) were analyzed to determine their distribution with a THg concentration ≥ 0.95 μg g−1 ww (5.4% of the data). This
classifications, a Sankey plot was built using the Sankey Network to be consumed unrestrictedly (<0.22 μg g−1 ww, 70.9%) or to
function from the networkD3 R-package (Allaire et al., 2017). be consumed in a moderated diet (0.22–0.95 μg g−1 ww, 23.7%).
a Mann–Whitney U-test was performed (Supplementary Table S6). and highest concentrations of THg (0.954 to 3.570 μg g−1 ww),
TABLE 2 Median and range of the THg concentration (μg g−1 ww) in fish muscle by country and number of species (n), and the proportion of fish species
Country THg (Min, Max) Number of species (n) % THg ≥ 0.95 μg g−1 ww
THg concentration. almost every analyzed country (Supplementary Table S1). Finally,
highest median values of THg concentration on fish muscle (> species), Colombia (16 species), Ecuador (9 species), Jamaica (2
0.3 μg g−1 ww; Table 2). Statistical tests showed significant differences species), Mexico (7 species), Paraguay (1), Peru (16 species),
in the THg median between countries (Mood’s median test, p-value Suriname (12 species), Trinidad and Tobago (3 species), Uruguay (2
In Figure 3, 77.2–79.3% of the total species studied showed to have Mann–Whitney U-test, p-value = 0.131, mean difference 0.020,
a THQ < 1, from which 68.7–69.2% showed THg concentrations lower Supplementary Table S6).
than 0.22 μg g−1 ww, and 18.9–20.5% present concentrations above this The countries estimated to have the greatest health risk were
remaining species with THQ values ≥1, only 5.6% have THg levels 1/3 of the species studied from these countries presenting a THQ ≥ 1
≥0.95 μg g−1 ww. From this subset, only 0.8–0.9% have THQ values (n = 77 from 203, 16 from 46, 16 from 43, 12 from 18, and 10 from 17,
species have no risk for adult human consumption (68.7% for women described by country.
would be acceptable for 70.9% of the data collected in the present varied widely across species, ecosystems, and populations from
study based on the MPW estimation. MPW < 1 (29.06%) estimation different countries, highlighting the need for region-specific
species with levels higher than 0.95 μg g−1 ww (MIAs in the indicated that ~70% of the fish analyzed were considered safe and
above 1. In Supplementary Table S1 there is a recommendation chart avoid consuming fishes from some genera, such as Acestrorhynchus,

Methods (brief)

predator fish, which are locally consumed, present high levels of Total Data were classified by fish species, country, sample size, habitat
is the average time of food consumption (EF × 70 years); and RfD is with a total data set of 1,046 samples. Countries reporting a higher
using the R-packages (R version 4.1.2). Species showing a THg content The Sankey plot (Figure 2) shows a subsample of those fish species
(carnivores, detritivores, herbivores, or omnivores). With these remaining samples are considered to have concentrations that are safe
would be acceptable for 70.9% of the data collected in the present varied widely across species, ecosystems, and populations from
Bolivia, were from fish samples from 30 or 20 years ago. Furthermore, FONDECYT 1230485, ANID Millennium Science Initiative

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