Total dietary intake of mercury in the Canary Islands, Spain
Résumé
Estimating the risk associated to dietary intake of heavy metals by consumers constitutes a vital and integral part of regulatory processes. The assessment of exposure to mercury shown in the present document has been performed by means of a study on the whole diet. The total mercury (Hg) levels found in 420 samples of foods and drinks usually consumed have been determined through cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The total Hg concentrations measured in the different analysed groups of food ranged from non detectable to 119 Μg/kg ww. The group of fish presented the highest total Hg concentrations. All groups of food with regulated Hg content showed levels that are lower than the legally set values. The food consumption data used in our analysis have been extracted from the latest nutritional survey made in the Canary Islands. The estimated total Hg intake of local population (5.7 Μg/kg/day) does not exceed the PTWI (Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake) limit of 0.3 mg/week of total mercury (43 Μg/person/day) fixed by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. Fishery products provide with 96% of the total Hg intake. The mean Hg intake for each Island in this archipelago, formed by seven, has also been calculated. Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and El Hierro are the ones that displayed the highest level of Hg intake (7.0, 7,0 and 6,1 Μg/day, respectively). La Palma Island, due to its low fish consumption, has the lowest level of Hg intake (4.5 Μg/person/day), followed by La Gomera (5.4 Μg/day), Tenerife (5.5 Μg/day) and Gran Canaria (5.6 Μg/day). A comparison of the results obtained in this study with those found for other national and international communities has also been included in the present article. μ
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