Hg Speciation and Stable Isotope Signatures in Human Hair As a Tracer for Dietary and Occupational Exposure to Mercury
Hg Speciation and Stable Isotope Signatures in Human Hair As a Tracer for Dietary and Occupational Exposure to Mercury
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DOI：
10.1021/es202353m
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发表时间：
2011-12-01
影响因子：
11.4
通讯作者：
Behra, Philippe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Laffont, Laure;Sonke, Jeroen E.;Behra, Philippe
人类和野生动物接触各种无机和有机金属形式的汞（汞）可能会对健康造成不利影响。虽然发达国家的人口主要接触海洋鱼类的一甲基汞（MMHg），但发展中国家和各种土著人民的情况未必如此。从尿液或头发等生物监测介质中确定汞暴露源将有助于防治汞暴露。本文报道了玻利维亚和法国不同金矿开采者、土著居民和城市人口头发中汞的稳定同位素特征和汞的物种形成。我们在所有头发样本中都发现了质量依赖同位素分馏（MDF）和质量无关同位素分馏（MIF）的证据。本文采用无机汞（IHg）、淡水鱼MMHg和海鱼MMHg源优势暴露的三个极限案例来定义汞同位素源的近似特征。了解了汞源特征后，我们估计了玻利维亚金矿工人的汞暴露源。模拟的头发中的汞含量与测量的汞浓度吻合良好（R = 0.9），表明金矿工人接触汞的来源可以根据其化学形态或同位素组成在头发样本中进行监测。金矿工人中MMHg和无机接触水平的不同似乎与生活和工作条件有关，包括与小城镇的距离，以及手工和大规模采矿活动。
Exposure of humans and wildlife to various inorganic and organometallic forms of mercury (Hg) may induce adverse health effects. While human populations in developed countries are mainly exposed to marine fish monomethylmercury (MMHg), this is not necessarily the case for developing countries and diverse indigenous people. Identification of Hg exposure sources from biomonitor media such as urine or hair would be useful in combating exposure. Here we report on the Hg stable isotope signatures and Hg speciation in human hair across different gold miner, indigenous and urban populations in Bolivia and France. We found evidence for both mass-dependent isotope fractionation (MDF) and mass-independent isotope fractionation (MIF) in all hair samples. Three limiting cases of dominant exposure to inorganic Hg (IHg), freshwater fish MMHg, and marine fish MMHg sources are used to define approximate Hg isotope source signatures. Knowing the source signatures, we then estimated Hg exposure sources for the Bolivian gold miner populations. Modeled IHg levels in hair correspond well to measured IHg concentrations (R = 0.9), demonstrating that IHg exposure sources to gold miners can be monitored in hair samples following either its chemical speciation or isotopic composition. Different MMHg and inorganic exposure levels among gold miners appear to correspond to living and working conditions, including proximity to small towns, and artisanal vs large scale mining activity.