1. Stable Mercury Isotopes in Polished Rice (Oryza sativa L.) and Hair from Rice Consumers.
- Author
-
Rothenberg, Sarah E., Yin, Runsheng, Hurley, James P., Krabbenhoft, David P., Ismawati, Yuyun, Hong, Chuan, and Donohue, Alexis
- Subjects
- *
MERCURY isotopes , *RICE , *MERCURY & the environment , *METHYLMERCURY & the environment , *HEAVY metals & the environment ,ENVIRONMENTAL aspects - Abstract
Mercury (Hg) isotopic signatures were characterized in polished rice samples from China, U.S., and Indonesia (n = 45). Hg isotopes were also analyzed in paired hair samples for participants from China (n = 21). For the latter, we also quantified the proportion of methylmercury intake through rice (range: 31-100%), and the weekly servings of fish meals (range: 0-5.6 servings/weekly). For these participants, 29% (n = 6) never ingested fish, 52% (n = 11) ingested fish < twice/weekly, and 19% (n = 4) ingested fish ? twice/weekly. In rice and hair, both mass-dependent fractionation (MDF, reported as ?202Hg) and mass-independent fractionation (MIF, reported as ?199Hg) of Hg isotopes were observed. Compared to rice, hair ?202Hg values were enriched on average (±1 standard deviation) by 1.9 ± 0.61‰, although the range was wide (range: 0.45‰, 3.0‰). Hair ?199Hg was significantly inversely associated with %methylmercury intake from rice (Spearman's rho = -0.61, p < 0.01, n = 21), i.e., as the proportion of methylmercury intake from rice increased, MIF decreased. Additionally, hair ?199Hg was significantly higher for participants ingesting fish ? twice/weekly compared to those who did not ingest fish or ingested fish < twice/weekly (ANOVA, p < 0.05, n = 21); Overall, results suggest that Hg isotopes (especially MIF) in human hair can be used to distinguish methylmercury intake from rice versus fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF