Mercury exposure of children living in Amazonian villages: influence of geographical location where they lived during prenatal and postnatal development.

Introduction: In some Amazonian river basins, hair mercury concentration is above the recommended levels. We evaluated the influence of birth geographical location in the hair mercury level of Amazonian riverine children.

Materials And Methods: Hair mercury concentration was measured in 219 children living in four Amazonian riverine communities: Tapajós River (São Luiz do Tapajós and Barreiras villages, n = 110), Tocantins River (Limoeiro do Ajurú village, n = 61), and Caeté River (Caratateua village, n = 48).

[Levels of mercury found in hair and fish consumption of riverine communities in the Tapajós region of the Brazilian Amazon].

Riverine communities are exposed to mercury due to the high ingestion of fish in their diet. In order to evaluate the levels of exposure in the Tapajós region, also assessing the fish ingestion frequency, a study was conducted in adults living in riverine communities in the municipality of Itaituba in the State of Pará. Hair samples were collected for the determination of total mercury and the weekly frequency data of fish ingestion was recorded.