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Risk of exposure to Hg and pesticides residues in a traditional fishing community in the Amazon: a probabilistic approach based on dietary pattern

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Abstract

Exposure to mercury (Hg) and pesticides (o.p’DDT, p.p’DDT, o.p’DDE, and p.p’DDE) in the Amazon through eating fish is of concern due to the large participation of this food in the diet of traditional fishing communities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the estimated daily intake (EDI) and the incremental lifetime cancer risk associated with Hg and o.p’DDT, p.p’DDT, o.p’DDE, and p.p’DDE in an Amazonian community. The results showed that for Hg, the EDI from carnivorous and detritivorous fish had the highest values, while for pesticides, the EDI from detritivorous fish intake had the highest value. The incremental lifetime cancer risk was below the permitted limit. A recommendation for controlling the high risk of exposure includes the reduction of detritivorous fish ingestion and/or replacement with herbivorous fish, which had lower EDI. We highlight the importance of investigating the human dietary patterns when estimating risk of exposure to Hg and pesticides.

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Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) through the CNPq/CTUniversal project (Grant no. 458977 2014–4) and by the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ; grant number: E-26/010.001984/2014 and E-26/210.071/2018). This study was also financed in part by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoa de Nível Superior – Brazil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Centro de Biociências E Biotecnologia, Universidade Estadual Do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 28013-602, Brazil

    Lucas Silva Azevedo, Inácio Abreu Pestana, Luiza Nascimento & Ana Paula Madeira di Beneditto

  2. Laboratório de Biogeoquímica Ambiental, Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Porto Velho, Rondônia, RO, CEP: 76815-800, Brazil

    Ronaldo Cavalcante Oliveira & Wanderley Rodrigues Bastos

Authors
  1. Lucas Silva Azevedo
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  2. Inácio Abreu Pestana
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  3. Luiza Nascimento
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  4. Ronaldo Cavalcante Oliveira
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  5. Wanderley Rodrigues Bastos
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  6. Ana Paula Madeira di Beneditto
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Contributions

Lucas Silva Azevedo was responsible for experimental design and wrote the paper; Inácio Abreu Pestana was responsible for the statistical analysis and participate in the experimental design; Luiza Nascimento revised the paper; Ronaldo Cavalcante de Oliveira provided the data of traditional fisher’s dietary patterns; Wanderley Rodrigues Bastos was responsible for the mercury analysis of Puruzinho Lake fish samples; Ana Paula Madeira di Beneditto participated in the experimental design and revising the paper. All authors were participated in this work.

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Correspondence to Lucas Silva Azevedo.

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Communicated by Lotfi Aleya.

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Azevedo, L., Pestana, I., Nascimento, L. et al. Risk of exposure to Hg and pesticides residues in a traditional fishing community in the Amazon: a probabilistic approach based on dietary pattern. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 34164–34173 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18409-y

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