Biomonitoring of total mercury in whole blood of South Korean by age and regional (2010 - 2011)

Abstract

The present study analyzed total mercury in whole blood from total of 4500 samples: adults = 2000, students = 1000 and infants = 800 (parents = 600), of Korean that were collected between 2010 and 2011 survey years using Gold Amalgamation-Direct Mercury Analyser (DMA-80). Geometric mean (GM) of adults, students and infants (parents) were 3.90 μg/L, 2.15 μg/L, 2.06 μg/L (3.23 μg/L), respectively, showing proportional relationship between age and total mercury concentration in whole blood. When the samples were analyzed in relation to gender, total mercury concentration was higher in male samples (3.11 μg/L) than female samples (2.76 μg/L). When the samples were analyzed in relation region, total mercury concentration was higher in coastal area samples (3.60 μg/L) than inland area samples (2.98 μg/L) with significance (p<0.05). Total mercury concentrations of 496 pairs of mother and infant showed low linearity with R2=0.026. The above statistical analysis was performed using PASW Statistics 18 (Version 18.0, SPSS, Chicago, IL).