Mercury levels and estimated total daily intakes for children and adults from an electronic waste recycling area in Taizhou, China: Key role of rice and fish consumption

In order to assess the potential health risks of Hg pollution, total mercury (T-Hg) and methyl mercury (MeHg) concentrations were determined in air, dust, surface soil, crops, poultry, fish and human hair samples from an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling area in Taizhou, China. High concentrations of T-Hg and MeHg were found in these multiple matrices, and the mean concentration was 30.7 ng/m(3) of T-Hg for atmosphere samples, 3.1 mu g/g of T-Hg for soil, 37.6 mu g/g of T-Hg for dust, 20.3 ng/g of MeHg for rice and 178.1 ng/g of MeHg for fish, suggesting that the e-waste recycling facility was a significant source of Hg. The inorganic Hg (I-Hg) levels (0.84 mu g/g) in hair samples of e-waste workers were much higher than that in the reference samples. Pearson's correlation coefficients showed that strong positive correlations (p < 0.01) between hair I-Hg and time staying in industrial area (r = 0.81) and between MeHg and fish consumption frequency (r = 0.91), imply that workers were mainly exposed to Hg vapor through long-time inhalation of contaminated air and dust, while other population mainly exposed to MeHg through high-frequency fish consumption. The estimated daily intakes of Hg showed that dietary intake was the major Hg exposure source, and Hg intakes from rice and fish were significantly higher than from any other foods. The estimated total daily intakes (TDIs) of MeHg for both children (696.8 ng/(kg.day)) and adults (381.3 ng/(kg.day)) greatly exceeded the dietary reference dose (RfD) of 230 ng/(kg.day), implying greater health risk for humans from Hg exposures around e-waste recycling facilities. (C) 2015 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.