Mercury Levels in Mothers
Katherine M. Shea
Abstract
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsMercury impact and mitigation studies · Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity · Air Quality and Health Impacts
I read with great interest the excellent article by Mahaffey et al. (2004), which further describes the characteristics of the 1,709 women from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2000 who were sampled for total and organic mercury levels in blood. It adds valuable detail to the initial report published last year (Schober et al. 2003). I would appreciate clarification on one important point: in the “Discussion,” the authors cited a new analysis which indicates that the cord blood:maternal blood ratio is not 1:1 as assumed by the National Research Council (NRC) in 2000 (Committee on the Toxicological Effects of Methylmercury 2000), but rather 1.7:1. Using the same benchmark dose lower limit and uncertainty factor used by the NRC, Mahaffey et al. (2004) calculated that blood total mercury levels > 3.5 μg/L in mothers could be associated with increased risk to the developing fetal nervous system. I am very interested in the details of this analysis and particularly in understanding why the uncertainty factor applied by the NRC to account in part for toxicokinetic variability does not compensate for uncertainty related to the cord blood:maternal blood mercury ratio. This is a critical concept because it has a dramatic impact on how many women may carry mercury levels in excess of what is believed to be safe for a fetus.
The reference list from the paper itself. Each links out to its DOI / PubMed record.
- 1Committee on the Toxicological Effects of Methylmercury, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council 2000. Toxicological Effects of Methylmercury. Washington, DC:National Academy Press. Available: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309071402/html/ [accessed 28 October 2004].
- 2Mahaffey KR Clickner RP Bodurow CC 2004 Blood organic mercury and dietary mercury intake: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999 and 2000 Environ Health Perspect 1125625701506416210.1289/ehp.6587 PMC 1241922 · doi ↗ · pubmed ↗
- 3Schober SE Sinks TH Jones RL Bolger PM Mc Dowell M Osterloh J 2003 Blood mercury levels in U.S. children and women of childbearing age, 1999–2000 JAMA 289166716741267273510.1001/jama.289.13.1667 · doi ↗ · pubmed ↗