Mercury in Fish 1.45 Mb - Arnika

Page 13 Mercury Policy Project
Mercury in Fish
A basic question is, how many consumers in
each country will have exposures represented
by the various scenarios? We assess that issue
health hazards in each country and culture
examined here. There are, however, important
differences in the risk scenarios from the
different countries, which have critical riskmanagement
implications in each case. It is
therefore worth examining the different risk
scenarios in some detail.
INDIA: The people of West Bengal eat a
of methylmercury. These factors combine
to produce generally high exposure. All the
reference levels are exceeded, often by wide
margins, in the majority of Indian exposure
scenarios shown in Table 6.
The assumptions used to calculate these
exposures are not “worst case” choices. In
consumption of 500 g, slightly below the
median intake shown by the survey of Kolkata
intake of 750 g/week, which represents the 90 th
percentile intake in that survey. Some West
Bengali consumers undoubtedly eat twice or
intake we used in Table 6. Children older
than 5 years consume adult-sized portions,
according to the survey. Regarding mercury
and used the average mercury content across
all the species tested at each site. It is primarily
from different locations that account for most
of the differences in calculated exposure.
Overall, our Indian exposure scenarios show
that a large majority of consumers in most
parts of West Bengal exceed the WHO PTWI
for prenatal exposure, because of their high-
at the site with the highest average mercury
from Jharkhali would exceed the WHO PTWI
for general exposure by 8.8 times, and a typical
adult’s intake exceeds that reference level
in half of the locations modeled. Consumers
shown in our examples, would exceed safety
limits by even wider margins, as could those
higher-than-average mercury content, and
children with smaller body weights.
THE PHILIPPINES: The people of the
consumption, estimated at 31 kg per capita per
year, or about 600 g per week, on average. 21
Our assumption that a consumer might eat
500 g of the high-mercury tested species in a
week is thus slightly below average in terms
to be far above average in terms of likely
quantities in the Philippines include sardines,
roundscad, various types of tuna, mackerel,
squid, and anchovies, among others. Based on
have relatively low mercury levels, 22 while
data are unavailable for others. But the highmercury,
predatory species we tested appear
to be eaten in smaller total volumes than many
more expensive and thus more likely to be sold
in restaurants, or eaten by upscale customers
occasionally. They may also be consumed by
varieties are caught. 23