Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, Kandi, TS, 502285, India.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2019 Sep;29(5):697-705. doi: 10.1038/s41370-018-0107-0. Epub 2019 Jan 10.
India is a major emitter of mercury to the environment, mainly due to emissions from coal-fired power plants. Consumption of fish and rice, two important pathways for human exposure to mercury, is particularly high in South India. Here, we report concentrations of total mercury in hair (THg) in 668 participants from South India. Three cities were covered: (i) a city on the east coast with four active coal-fired thermal power plants (Nellore), (ii) a city on the west coast with no major mercury source (Vasco da Gama), and (iii) a metropolitan city in the interior with no major mercury source (Hyderabad). Geometric mean of THg of the entire study population is 0.14 µg/g (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.13-0.15 µg/g). Significant predictor variables are age, fish consumption, and occupations such as dental studies, subsistence fishing, and artisanal goldsmithing (which is different from artisanal scale gold mining). Our results support the hypothesis that people living in a city with active coal-fired power plants may have higher THg than those in cities with no major mercury source.
印度是向环境排放汞的主要国家之一，主要是由于燃煤电厂的排放。在印度南部，鱼类和大米的消费——这是人类接触汞的两个重要途径——特别高。在这里，我们报告了来自印度南部的 668 名参与者的头发总汞（THg）浓度。涵盖了三个城市：（i）东海岸有四个活跃的燃煤热电厂的城市（内洛尔），（ii）西海岸没有主要汞源的城市（瓦斯科·达伽马），以及（iii）内陆没有主要汞源的大都市（海得拉巴）。整个研究人群的 THg 几何平均值为 0.14μg/g（95%置信区间，CI：0.13-0.15μg/g）。显著的预测变量是年龄、鱼类消费以及牙科研究、生计捕鱼和手工金匠等职业（与手工小规模金矿开采不同）。我们的结果支持了这样一种假设，即生活在有活跃燃煤电厂的城市的人可能比没有主要汞源的城市的人拥有更高的 THg。
