Feng Q, Suzuki Y, Hisashige A
Department of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Tokushima University, Japan.
Arch Environ Health. 1998 Jan-Feb;53(1):36-43. doi: 10.1080/00039899809605687.
The authors used gold-amalgamation cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry and ECD-gas chromatography to analyze total mercury and methylmercury levels in hair samples obtained from 362 residents in Harbin, China; Medan, Indonesia; and Tokushima, Japan. In this study, the authors initially questioned whether mercury levels in hair differed among different study areas, and if there were differences, they questioned the contributing factors. In the three countries surveyed, total mercury and methylmercury levels in hair were lowest in residents of China and were highest in residents of Japan. In the district of Tokushima, Japan, total mercury and methylmercury levels were highest in the coastal district, followed by the middle district; the lowest levels occurred in the mountainous district. In Japan, an individual's total mercury level correlated very closely with that person's methylmercury level; in China and Indonesia, the correlation between these 2 parameters was low. No subjects in China or Indonesia had high levels of methylmercury in hair; this was true even if their total mercury levels were high. This finding suggests that the high total mercury levels observed in some residents of China and Indonesia reflected exposure to inorganic mercury. In Japan, mercury (especially methylmercury) levels in hair samples were quite high. Fish and shellfish, caught in seas uncontaminated by human activity, appeared to be major sources of the high levels of hair mercury in Japanese subjects.
作者使用金汞齐冷蒸气原子吸收光谱法和电子捕获检测器气相色谱法，分析了从中国哈尔滨、印度尼西亚棉兰和日本德岛的362名居民采集的头发样本中的总汞和甲基汞水平。在本研究中，作者最初质疑不同研究地区人群头发中的汞含量是否存在差异，若存在差异，他们还质疑了促成这些差异的因素。在所调查的三个国家中，中国居民头发中的总汞和甲基汞水平最低，日本居民头发中的总汞和甲基汞水平最高。在日本德岛地区，沿海地区居民头发中的总汞和甲基汞水平最高，其次是中部地区；山区居民头发中的汞含量最低。在日本，个体的总汞水平与其甲基汞水平密切相关；在中国和印度尼西亚，这两个参数之间的相关性较低。在中国或印度尼西亚，没有受试者头发中的甲基汞含量高；即使他们的总汞水平较高，情况也是如此。这一发现表明，在中国和印度尼西亚一些居民中观察到的高总汞水平反映了其对无机汞的接触。在日本，头发样本中的汞（尤其是甲基汞）水平相当高。在未受人类活动污染的海域捕获的鱼类和贝类，似乎是日本受试者头发中高汞含量的主要来源。
