Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food
EFSA was asked by the European Commission to consider new developments regarding inorganic mercury and methylmercury toxicity and evaluate whether the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) provisional tolerable weekly intakes for methylmercury of 1.6 µg/kg body weight (b.w.) and o...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:171dedac988949f7809873ee755312da 2023-05-15T16:11:04+02:00 Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985 https://doaj.org/article/171dedac988949f7809873ee755312da EN eng Wiley http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/2985.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1831-4732 doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985 1831-4732 https://doaj.org/article/171dedac988949f7809873ee755312da EFSA Journal, Vol 10, Iss 12 (2012) total mercury methylmercury inorganic mercury tolerable weekly intake risk assessment fish food Nutrition. Foods and food supply TX341-641 Chemical technology TP1-1185 article 2012 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985 2022-12-31T06:47:11Z EFSA was asked by the European Commission to consider new developments regarding inorganic mercury and methylmercury toxicity and evaluate whether the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) provisional tolerable weekly intakes for methylmercury of 1.6 µg/kg body weight (b.w.) and of 4 µg/kg b.w. for inorganic mercury were still appropriate. In line with JECFA, the CONTAM Panel established a tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for inorganic mercury of 4 µg/kg b.w., expressed as mercury. For methylmercury, new developments in epidemiological studies from the Seychelles Child Developmental Study Nutrition Cohort have indicated that n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish may counteract negative effects from methylmercury exposure. Together with the information that beneficial nutrients in fish may have confounded previous adverse outcomes in child cohort studies from the Faroe Islands, the Panel established a TWI for methylmercury of 1.3 µg/kg b.w., expressed as mercury. The mean dietary exposure across age groups does not exceed the TWI for methylmercury, with the exception of toddlers and other children in some surveys. The 95th percentile dietary exposure is close to or above the TWI for all age groups. High fish consumers, which might include pregnant women, may exceed the TWI by up to approximately six-fold. Unborn children constitute the most vulnerable group. Biomonitoring data from blood and hair indicate that methylmercury exposure is generally below the TWI in Europe, but higher levels are also observed. Exposure to methylmercury above the TWI is of concern. If measures to reduce methylmercury exposure are considered, the potential beneficial effects of fish consumption should also be taken into account. Dietary inorganic mercury exposure in Europe does not exceed the TWI, but inhalation exposure of elemental mercury from dental amalgam is likely to increase the internal inorganic mercury exposure; thus the TWI might be exceeded. Article in Journal/Newspaper Faroe Islands Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Faroe Islands EFSA Journal 10 12 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
total mercury methylmercury inorganic mercury tolerable weekly intake risk assessment fish food Nutrition. Foods and food supply TX341-641 Chemical technology TP1-1185 |
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total mercury methylmercury inorganic mercury tolerable weekly intake risk assessment fish food Nutrition. Foods and food supply TX341-641 Chemical technology TP1-1185 EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
topic_facet |
total mercury methylmercury inorganic mercury tolerable weekly intake risk assessment fish food Nutrition. Foods and food supply TX341-641 Chemical technology TP1-1185 |
description |
EFSA was asked by the European Commission to consider new developments regarding inorganic mercury and methylmercury toxicity and evaluate whether the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) provisional tolerable weekly intakes for methylmercury of 1.6 µg/kg body weight (b.w.) and of 4 µg/kg b.w. for inorganic mercury were still appropriate. In line with JECFA, the CONTAM Panel established a tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for inorganic mercury of 4 µg/kg b.w., expressed as mercury. For methylmercury, new developments in epidemiological studies from the Seychelles Child Developmental Study Nutrition Cohort have indicated that n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish may counteract negative effects from methylmercury exposure. Together with the information that beneficial nutrients in fish may have confounded previous adverse outcomes in child cohort studies from the Faroe Islands, the Panel established a TWI for methylmercury of 1.3 µg/kg b.w., expressed as mercury. The mean dietary exposure across age groups does not exceed the TWI for methylmercury, with the exception of toddlers and other children in some surveys. The 95th percentile dietary exposure is close to or above the TWI for all age groups. High fish consumers, which might include pregnant women, may exceed the TWI by up to approximately six-fold. Unborn children constitute the most vulnerable group. Biomonitoring data from blood and hair indicate that methylmercury exposure is generally below the TWI in Europe, but higher levels are also observed. Exposure to methylmercury above the TWI is of concern. If measures to reduce methylmercury exposure are considered, the potential beneficial effects of fish consumption should also be taken into account. Dietary inorganic mercury exposure in Europe does not exceed the TWI, but inhalation exposure of elemental mercury from dental amalgam is likely to increase the internal inorganic mercury exposure; thus the TWI might be exceeded. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) |
author_facet |
EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) |
author_sort |
EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) |
title |
Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
title_short |
Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
title_full |
Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
title_fullStr |
Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scientific Opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
title_sort |
scientific opinion on the risk for public health related to the presence of mercury and methylmercury in food |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985 https://doaj.org/article/171dedac988949f7809873ee755312da |
geographic |
Faroe Islands |
geographic_facet |
Faroe Islands |
genre |
Faroe Islands |
genre_facet |
Faroe Islands |
op_source |
EFSA Journal, Vol 10, Iss 12 (2012) |
op_relation |
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/2985.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1831-4732 doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985 1831-4732 https://doaj.org/article/171dedac988949f7809873ee755312da |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985 |
container_title |
EFSA Journal |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
12 |
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1765996187870035968 |