These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.
Pubmed for Handhelds
PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS
Search MEDLINE/PubMed
Title: Survey of total mercury in total diet food composites and an estimation of the dietary intake of mercury by adults and children from two Canadian cities, 1998-2000. Author: Dabeka RW, McKenzie AD, Bradley P. Journal: Food Addit Contam; 2003 Jul; 20(7):629-38. PubMed ID: 12888388. Abstract: Total mercury was measured in 259 total diet food composites from two Canadian cities. Levels were generally low, with 46% of the composites having concentrations below the limit of detection, which ranged from 0.026 to 0.506 ng g(-1). The fish category contained the highest mercury concentrations, which averaged 67 ng g(-1) and ranged from 24 to 148 ng g(-1). All composites were below the Canadian guideline for total mercury in fish of 0.5 ppm. Dietary intakes of mercury averaged 0.022 microg kg(-1) body weight/day (microg kg(-1) day(-1)), and ranged from 0.012 microg kg(-1) day(-1) for females over 65 years old to 0.062 microg kg(-1) day(-1) for 0-1-month-old infants. For fish consumers, fish contributed to more than half of the ingested mercury. All intakes were well below Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes, expressed on a daily basis, of 0.71 microg kg(-1) day(-1) total mercury and 0.47 microg kg(-1) day(-1) methyl mercury, and also below a recent Health Canada recommended maximum methyl mercury intake of 0.2 microg kg(-1) day(-1) for children and women of child-bearing age.[Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]