Chronic dietary risk assessment of Methymercury (MeHg) at FoodEx2

Methymercury (MeHg) is by far the most common organic form of mercury in the food chain. The largest source of mercury exposure for most people in developed countries is inhalation of mercury vapour due to the continuous release of elemental mercury from dental amalgam. Exposure to methylmercury mostly occurs via the diet. Methylmercury collects and concentrates especially in the aquatic food chain, making populations with a high intake of fish and seafood particularly vulnerable.
In the current report the dietary exposure of the target population is studied using ImproRisk model v.0.3.2. The aim of this risk assessment study was to estimate the dietary methylmercury intake of the population in Cyprus, to compare this exposure estimate with the Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) of 1.6 μg/kg body weight (b.w.) per week and to calculate the contribution rate of the major food groups to the dietary methylmercury exposure.
Mean dietary methylmercury exposure of the Cypriot population was calculated as 0.215 and 1.042 μg/kg b.w. per week for mean and P95, respectively. It was found that about 2.5 % of the whole population was exposed over the TWI value of 1.6 μg/Kg b.w. per week. Higher exposure was observed for infants and other children due to their lower body weight and may be due to their consumption habits, especially in the cases with higher fish consumption.
There was no significant difference in methylmercury intake between genders and different geographical areas.
Sea bream (26.8%), canned tuna (23.0%), swordfish (7.0%) and salmons (6.1%) were the food categories with the highest contribution to the methylmercury intake.