Methylmercury exposure, mercury levels in blood and hair, and health status in Swedes consuming contaminated fish.

Abstract Levels of total mercury in blood cells ranging 8–390 ng/g (in one case 1100) were found in 162 Swedes who consumed fish containing 0.3–7 mg Hg/kg. Levels above 100 ng/g were seen only in subjects 40–80 years of age, levels above 200 ng/g only in persons who consumed fish containing about 1 mg Hg/kg or more. 20 subjects eating fish containing about 0.04 mg Hg/kg ranged 8–45 ng/g blood cells, and 22 subjects eating commercially available fish 3–57 ng/g. Long-term exposure to 4 μg Hg as methylmercury/kg body weight/day - as estimated from fish intake records - corresponded to a blood cell mercury level of about 300 ng/g. After the end of exposure, biologic half-time of mercury in blood cells ranged 58–87 days in 4 subjects, while the corresponding figure was 164 days in one individual. A screening for signs and symptoms of methylmercury poisoning in 86 of the exposed subjects revealed no clearcut case of poisoning. Some subjects of symptoms in a high-mercury (82–1100 ng/g blood cells) group as compared to a low-mercury (12–75 ng/g) group.

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