Sheehan Mary C, Burke Thomas A, Navas-Acien Ana, Breysse Patrick N, McGready John, Fox Mary A
Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States of America (USA).
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA .
Bull World Health Organ. 2014 Apr 1;92(4):254-269F. doi: 10.2471/BLT.12.116152. Epub 2014 Jan 10.
To examine biomarkers of methylmercury (MeHg) intake in women and infants from seafood-consuming populations globally and characterize the comparative risk of fetal developmental neurotoxicity.
A search was conducted of the published literature reporting total mercury (Hg) in hair and blood in women and infants. These biomarkers are validated proxy measures of MeHg, a neurotoxin found primarily in seafood. Average and high-end biomarkers were extracted, stratified by seafood consumption context, and pooled by category. Medians for average and high-end pooled distributions were compared with the reference level established by a joint expert committee of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Selection criteria were met by 164 studies of women and infants from 43 countries. Pooled average biomarkers suggest an intake of MeHg several times over the FAO/WHO reference in fish-consuming riparians living near small-scale gold mining and well over the reference in consumers of marine mammals in Arctic regions. In coastal regions of south-eastern Asia, the western Pacific and the Mediterranean, average biomarkers approach the reference. Although the two former groups have a higher risk of neurotoxicity than the latter, coastal regions are home to the largest number at risk. High-end biomarkers across all categories indicate MeHg intake is in excess of the reference value.
There is a need for policies to reduce Hg exposure among women and infants and for surveillance in high-risk populations, the majority of which live in low-and middle-income countries.
研究全球食用海产品人群中妇女和婴儿甲基汞（MeHg）摄入的生物标志物，并描述胎儿发育神经毒性的相对风险。
检索已发表的关于妇女和婴儿头发及血液中总汞（Hg）的文献。这些生物标志物是已得到验证的MeHg替代指标，MeHg是一种主要存在于海产品中的神经毒素。提取平均和高端生物标志物，按海产品消费情况分层，并按类别汇总。将平均和高端汇总分布的中位数与联合国粮食及农业组织（FAO）和世界卫生组织（WHO）联合专家委员会确定的参考水平进行比较。
来自43个国家的164项关于妇女和婴儿的研究符合选择标准。汇总的平均生物标志物表明，生活在小规模金矿附近的食鱼沿岸居民的MeHg摄入量是FAO/WHO参考值的几倍，而北极地区海洋哺乳动物消费者的摄入量则远超过参考值。在东南亚、西太平洋和地中海的沿海地区，平均生物标志物接近参考值。尽管前两组的神经毒性风险高于后者，但沿海地区面临风险的人数最多。所有类别的高端生物标志物表明MeHg摄入量超过参考值。
需要制定政策以减少妇女和婴儿的汞暴露，并对高危人群进行监测，其中大多数生活在低收入和中等收入国家。
