A Study on hair mercury and body composition from Siheung City in Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of different body compositions to the hair mercury concentration. Samples were collected in Siheung, Korea from 23 July 2007 to 14 August 2007. Nine hundred and nine participants (393 males and 516 females) were included. Hair samples were collected by stainless steel scissors and analyzed by Direct Mercury Analyzer equipped with cold vapor atomic adsorption spectrometer (CVAAS). A questionnaire was used to determine the socio-demographic variables, and body compositions were measured by an anatomic analyzer. Two hundred nineteen participants (24.1%) had higher hair mercury levels than EPA' reference level (1μg/g) (68.9% of males and 31.1% of females). Average geometric mean (GM) of the hair mercury concentration was 0.65 ± 1.87 μg/g (0.84 ± 1.82 μg/g for male and 0.53 ± 1.77 μg/g for female, respectively). Age, BMI, education level, fish consumption and smoking status showed significant differences in the hair mercury concentration between two groups (Group 1: above 1 μg/g Hg hair, Group 2: below 1 μg/g Hg hair). Multiple linear regression showed that gender (β=0.34, p=0.0001), fish consumption (β=0.14, p=0.031), hemoglobin (β=0.04, p=0.042), protein mass (β=0.04, p=0.014) were positively associated with the hair mercury concentration. Age (10 to 19 year and more than 60 year) and fat mass, however, were not significantly associated with the hair mercury concentration. Protein mass contributed 14% to hair mercury concentration suggesting that protein strongly influenced the hair mercury concentration. This results could be explain to understand accumulation in human with respect to a body composition analysis.