The relationship between the fish consumption and blood total/methyl-mercury concentration of costal area in Korea

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between fish consumption and blood THg/MeHg concentration in Korean adults by measuring MeHg concentration in blood directly. The study subjects consisted of 400 adults aged 20 or older from 30 subareas in Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsangnam-do province in Korea from August to October, 2010. We tried to recruit the same number of male and female participants in different age groups (20 s, 30 s, 40 s, 50 s and 60 s) and allocated 13–16 subjects by district to represent Hg concentration in the research areas. The geometric means of THg and MeHg concentration in blood were 5.27 μg/L (5.00–5.57) and 4.05 μg/L (3.81–4.32), respectively. The proportion of MeHg/THg concentration was 78.53% (77.09–79.97). MeHg concentration was higher in coastal areas (4.26 μg/L) than in inland areas (3.52 μg/L) and was higher in men (4.68 μg/L) than in women (3.52 μg/L). In male participants, blood MeHg concentration increased with increasing annual fish consumption, and the proportion of MeHg/THg concentration showed an upward trend as THg concentration increased.However, none of the measures of the proportion of MeHg/THg showed significant differences. This is the first report in Korea about the relationship between blood MeHg concentration and related factors. Our findings suggest that MeHg concentration is affected by fish consumption as well as by gender difference and drinking status. Since the pathological mechanism has not been clarified, additional studies are needed for explaining the biological and lifestyle differences in the risk of adverse health effects by Hg exposure.