Hair mercury levels in Amazonian populations: spatial distribution and trends

Table 3 Hair mercury levels in Brazilian River Basins, General Population

Study River Basin	Location	N	Hg mean μg/g (median) [SD]	Range μ g/g	Fish consumption
Akagi et al. 1995	Três Bocas	11	28.1	8.4-54.0
Araguari River
Castro et al. 1991	Surucucus, Paapiu and Mujacai areas	162	3.61	1.4-8.1
Branco River
Forsberg et al. 1995	Various sites between Marie and Paduari Rivers	154	75.5 [35.2]	5.8-171.2
Negro River
Kehrig et al. 1998	Balbina Reservoir	53	6.5 [5.4]	1.2-22.0	110 g
Negro River
Leino & Lodenius 1995	Tucuruí area	125	35.0 (29.0)	0.9-240.0	11 meals/week
Tocantins River
Pinheiro, Nakanishi et al. 2000	Belém	13	2.0
Tocantins River
Santos, Camara et al. 2002	Caxiuanã	214	8.6 [6.3]	0.6-46.0	12.3 meals/week
Amazon River
Santos et al. 2003	Lower Mamoré: Pakaás Novos Indigenous Areas	910	8.4 (6.9) [6.4]	0.5-83.9
Mamoré River
Soares et al. 2002	Doutor Tanajura	13	(6.1)	1.4-11.7
Mamoré River
Vasconcellos et al. 1994	Indigenous Xingu Park	27	18.5 (18) [5.9]	6.9-34.0
Xingu River	Billings Dam	28	0.9 (0.7) [0.7]	0.3-3.0
	Controls	25	1.1 (1.0) [0.6]	0.3-2.5
Vasconcellos et al. 2000	Xingu Park (13 groups)			1.2-57.3
Xingu River	Highest values		21.8 (20.8) [6.1]
	Lowest values		3.6 (2.6) [2.4]

The Tapajós and Madeira Rivers basins are not displayed in this table (see Tables 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). ^aPercentage of the population with hair mercury levels higher than 10 μg/g.

ISSN: 1476-072X