Public health benefits of hair-mercury analysis and dietary advice in lowering methylmercury exposure in pregnant women.
Scand J Public Health
; 45(4): 444-451, 2017 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28381203
ABSTRACT
AIMS:
To evaluate whether a public health intervention using focused dietary advice combined with a hair-mercury analysis can lower neurotoxic methylmercury exposure among pregnant women without decreasing their overall intake of seafood.METHODS:
A total of 146 pregnant women were consecutively recruited from the antenatal clinic at a Danish university hospital at their initial ultrasound scan. Dietary advice was provided on avoiding methylmercury exposure from large predatory fish and a hair sample from each participant was analysed for mercury, with the results being communicated shortly thereafter to the women. A dietary questionnaire was filled in. Follow-up three months later included a dietary questionnaire and a repeat hair-mercury analysis.RESULTS:
In the follow-up group, 22% of the women had hair-mercury concentrations above a safe limit of 0.58 µg/g at enrolment, decreasing to 8% three months later. Average hair-mercury concentrations decreased by 21%. However, the total seafood intake remained at the same level after three months.CONCLUSIONS:
Increased exposure to methylmercury among pregnant women is an important public health concern in Denmark. The observed lowering of hair-mercury concentrations associated with dietary advice corresponds to a substantial public health benefit that probably makes such an intervention highly profitable.Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Directive Counseling
/
Diet
/
Environmental Exposure
/
Hair
/
Health Promotion
/
Mercury
/
Methylmercury Compounds
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Scand J Public Health
Journal subject:
MEDICINA SOCIAL
/
SAUDE PUBLICA
Year:
2017
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Denmark