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Human exposure to methylmercury from crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in China

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Abstract

Methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in aquatic food raises global concerns about human exposure to MeHg. Crayfish is the world’s third largest farmed crustacean species and a favorite aquatic food in many countries. However, human health hazard due to MeHg exposure via crayfish consumption is unclear, partly because appropriate survey data are lacking. We report on mercury concentrations and speciation in edible tail muscle of crayfish collected from restaurants in 23 Chinese cities. On average, MeHg constituted 99.1 % of mercury in tail muscle, and MeHg concentrations were comparable with those reported for fish in China. Variation in MeHg concentrations was not attributable to broad geographic region (i.e., provinces) or tail length. For different populations, potential health risk (characterized by hazard quotient or HQ) of MeHg exposure through crayfish consumption depended largely on crayfish consumption rates. In particular, a health hazard (HQ > 1) was found for high-rate consumers (i.e., 95 %ile or higher) in some cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLYR), during the peak consumption season. Our results suggest that more attention should be paid to dietary MeHg intake via crayfish consumption in China, particularly for communities with high consumption in MLYR.

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Abbreviations

ATSDR:

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

BW:

Body weight

C:

Concentration

D:

Day

DCR:

Daily consumption rate

EDI:

Estimated daily intake

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization

GASC:

General Administration of Sport of China

HQ:

Hazard quotient

MLYR:

Middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River

MeHg:

Methylmercury

NBSC:

China’s National Bureau of Statistics

NRC:

National Research Council

RfD:

Reference dose

THg:

Total mercury

USEPA:

United States Environmental Protection Agency

W:

Weight

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided to H.Z. by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41273087), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2012312), and the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (20120091120014). B.G. was supported by a USEPA STAR Fellowship and a NSF SAGE-IGERT Traineeship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Nanjing University, 163 Xian Lin Da Dao, Nanjing, 210023, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Qian Peng & Huan Zhong

  2. Environmental Health Sciences Division, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Ben K. Greenfield

  3. State Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Dang

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  1. Qian Peng
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  2. Ben K. Greenfield
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  4. Huan Zhong
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Correspondence to Huan Zhong.

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Peng, Q., Greenfield, B.K., Dang, F. et al. Human exposure to methylmercury from crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in China. Environ Geochem Health 38, 169–181 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-015-9701-4

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