Cover Letter: Download document
Num. pages: 1
Executive Summary
Hair analysis provides a historical record of an individual’s exposure to mercury or methylmercury. In this study hair analysis of mercury was performed on samples from selfselected volunteer participants from across the United States. Participants completed detailed questionnaires that included questions regarding their level of fish consumption (broken down by type of fish), as well as age, gender, race, hair treatments, flu vaccinations, and dental amalgams. The responses to these questions were then related to data regarding hair mercury concentrations to compare groups of interest and to use in an ANOVA statistical analysis. Total hair mercury was found to be significantly associated with age, race, gender, geographic region, and fish consumption frequency. The median hair mercury concentration for participants who consumed eight or more servings of seafood per month (including shellfish) was 0.83 ug/g more than those who reported consuming no fish, 0.68 ug/g more than those who consumed 1-2 servings per month, and 0.43 ug/g more than those who consumed 3-7 servings per month. There was not a statistically significant difference between the hair mercury concentration of those who had dental amalgams and those who did not or between those who had had a flu vaccination in the past year and those who had not, although the difference for dental amalgams was close to being statistically significant. Midwesterners had substantially lower median hair mercury concentrations than those in other regions of the US, even after adjusting for other factors such as frequency of fish consumption.
Full Report: Download document
Num. pages: 12
