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Total and methylmercury intake associated with fish consumption in Bahrain
Author(s) -
Freije Afnan,
Awadh Maysoon
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.2008.00129.x
Subject(s) - methylmercury , epinephelus , sardinella , mercury (programming language) , zoology , sardine , fishery , chemistry , fish <actinopterygii> , biology , environmental chemistry , grouper , bioaccumulation , computer science , programming language
This study was performed to determine the total mercury (T‐Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in five fish species: Scomberomorus commerson, Siganus canaliculatus, Epinephelus coioides, Lethrinus nedulosus and Sardinella albella . The highest mean concentrations of T‐Hg and MeHg (0.126±0.009 and 0.123±0.010 mg/kg wet weight, respectively) were found in the carnivorous fish S. commerson , whereas the lowest concentrations were determined in the herbivorous fish S. albella (0.029±0.005 and 0.028±0.005 mg/kg wet weight, respectively). MeHg was the major form of mercury accumulated in fish, comprising more than 94.6% of the T‐Hg in fish samples examined in this study. The overall mean concentrations of T‐Hg and MeHg found in the species studied were generally lower than those reported in earlier studies in the region and did not exceed international limits (0.5 and 0.3 mg/kg wet weight, respectively). The overall mean of T‐Hg intake from fish was estimated to be 0.0003 mg/kg/week, which is less than the threshold level set by the World Health Organization (WHO) (0.0016 mg/kg/week).