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Author(s): G. K. Luk
Abstract:
The consumption of fish accounts for the most significant source of MeHg
accumulation in human.
The rate of mercury accumulation depends on many
factors, including the amount, size, type and frequency of fish consumed, as well
as the contamination levels of the aquatic habitat.
The ability to accurately
predict the human exposure of mercury through fish consumption is very critical
for drawing public consumption guidelines.
This paper describes the
development of an innovative method for the estimation of human exposure of
mercury through mathematical modelling.
The paper provides a practicable
mathematical tool for estimating the human mercury exposure through fish
consumption, by a combination of fish mercury bioaccumulation models with
surveyed information of fish-eating habit.
The efficacy of the model is
demonstrated through application to some common Lake Ontario fish species.
Keywords:
methyl mercury, human exposure, fish, bioaccumulation, diet,
concentration, fish consumption, mathematical models.
1 Introduction
Mercury and its compounds are widely distributed in the environment.
Mercury
occurs naturally in the environment as mercuric sulphide, from the degassing of
the earth’s crust through volcanic gases and the weathering of rock in mountains
[17].
It has desirable properties such as the ability to alloy with most metals,
liquidity at room temperature, electrical conductivity, and the ease of vaporizing
and freezing, making mercury an important industrial metal.
As a result, mercury
has over 3,000 industrial applications, including gold-mining, electrical
equipment, chloralkali, paint, fungicide, military, medicine, and dentistry [16].
...
Pages: 10
Size: 301 kb
Paper DOI: 10.2495/EHR050271
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