Evaluation of total mercury concentrations in fish consumed in the municipality of Itaituba, Tapajós River Basin, Pará, Brazil

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2000-10, Vol.261 (1), p.1-8
• Main Authors: dos Santos, Luciane do S.N, Müller, Regina C.S, Sarkis, Jorge E.de S, Alves, Cláudio N, Brabo, Edilson da S, Santos, Elisabeth de O, Bentes, Maria Helena da S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agnatha. Pisces; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Body Constitution; Brachyplatystoma flavicans; Brazil; Brazil, Itaituba; Brazil, Tapajos R; Diet; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Effects of pollution and side effects of pesticides on vertebrates; Environmental Monitoring; Fish; Fishes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gold-mining; Humans; Itaituba; Mercury; Mercury - adverse effects; Mercury - analysis; Psedoplatystoma; Pseudoplatystoma; Public Health; Tapajós River; Water Pollutants, Chemical - adverse effects; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Weight
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/S0048-9697(00)00590-8

The environmental exposure to mercury by riverine and Indian communities can occur through the ingestion of fish and products contaminated by mercury compounds. The present study aims to evaluate the total mercury concentration in the different fish species most consumed in the municipality of Itaituba, Tapajós river basin, where there are intense gold-mining activities. These fish samples were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry by cold vapor technique, Automatic Mercury Analyzer HG-3500. The largest mercury concentrations were found in the carnivorous species ranging from 112.4 to 2250 μg/g, while the detritivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous species presented total mercury levels ranging from 3.2 to 309.8 μg/g, which is below the limit established by the World Health Organization. This paper also reports and identifies which species are more polluted and present a statistical relationship among concentration and weight of the carnivorous species studied in detail, Brachyplatystoma flavicans (dourada) ( r 2=0.691) and Pseudoplatystoma sp. (surubim) ( r 2=0.654).