The characteristic and bio-accessibility evaluation of mercury species in various kinds of seafood collected from Fujian of China for mercury risk assessment

Chaochen Sun; Miaomiao Yin; Ying Peng; Chen Lin; Yongning Wu; FengFu Fu; Yue Lin

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136549

The characteristic and bio-accessibility evaluation of mercury species in various kinds of seafood collected from Fujian of China for mercury risk assessment

J Hazard Mater. 2024 Nov 17:482:136549. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136549. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chaochen Sun¹, Miaomiao Yin¹, Ying Peng¹, Chen Lin¹, Yongning Wu², FengFu Fu³, Yue Lin⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology of MOE, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, China.
² NHC Key Lab of Food Safety Risk Assessment, Food Safety Research Unit (2019RU014) of China Academy of Medical Science, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, Beijing 100021, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology of MOE, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, China. Electronic address: fengfu@fzu.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology of MOE, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, China. Electronic address: t23163@fzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39571373
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136549

Abstract

Seafood consumption is the major source of total Hg (tHg) and methyl mercury (MeHg) for humans. Lack of broad-representative bio-accessibility of mercury species makes accurate assessment on health risk of seafood's mercury impossible. Herein, the concentrations and in vitro bio-accessibilities of mercury species in 93 seafood samples with 71 different species were extensively investigated. Results indicated that all shellfish and fish samples, and most seaweed samples contained both Hg²⁺ and MeHg, while some seaweed samples contained only Hg²⁺. The concentrations of mercury species varied depending on the differences in species/individuals of seafood and sampling regions. MeHg in seafood can be partly de-methylated into Hg²⁺ during gastrointestinal digestion, which reduced the toxicity of mercury in seafood. The mean demethylation rate of MeHg varied as follows: seaweeds (⁓62.1 %) > shellfishes/shrimps (⁓19.7 %) > fishes (⁓9.2 %). The mean bio-accessibility of Hg²⁺ and tHg varied as follows: seaweeds (⁓97.7 % and ⁓90.1 %) > shellfishes/shrimps (⁓65.1 % and ⁓67.9 %) ≈ fishes (⁓65.1 % and ⁓66.7 %), while that of MeHg varied as follows: fishes (⁓57.7 %) > shellfishes/shrimps (50.8 %) > seaweeds (⁓11.6 %). The simulated calculation of target hazard quotient (THQ) revealed that the health risk of seafood's mercury may be accurately assessed using tHg, not mercury species, even without considering bio-accessibility. This offers a simple but protective approach for assessing the health risk of seafood's mercury. Results of this study provide the potential broad-representative bio-accessibilities of mercury species existing in various kinds of seafood and novel insights for scientifically assessing the health risk of seafood's mercury and revising the mercury limitation in seafood.

Keywords: Bioavailability; Marine organism; Mercury; Risk assessment; Seafood.