Exposição ao mercúrio pelo consumo de pescado nas comunidades pesqueira/ribeirinhas da bacia inferior do Rio Jaguaribe-Ceará-Nordeste-Brasil

Abstract

In Lower Basin Jaguaribe River (LBJR), most water sources in the state of Ceará, was identified through interview 112 households from six localities of fishing/coastal communities (Pontal do Maceió, Jardim de Baixo, Jardim de Cima, Volta, Nova Esperança e Boca do Forno), the average age of 293 persons was 33.3 ± 22.1 (0-87 years), weight 55.4 ± 20.1 (9.0 to 107.4 kg) and height of 1.48 ± 0.21 (0.6 to 1.80 m). Composed mostly of adult men and women (> 15 years), the communities showed fish consumption per capita weekly (CSP1) of 1.0 ± 0.7 (0.0 to 3.7 kg/per capita/week) and individual (CSP2) of 0.3 ± 0.3 (0.0 - 2.2 kg/per capita/per week), most of the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), showing that only 39.2 % of this population have a Body Mass Index (BMI) within the normal range. Furthermore, there is a high diversity of species in the water supply of these populations (62 species), such as crustaceans, mollusks and fish, of which 30 were analised and 20 were estimated human exposure to mercury. Analyses of concentrations of total mercury (Hg -T) showed values of 1.14 ng/g (LD) to 104.9 ± 10.0 ng/g, identifying that 75.9 % of the mercury present in these species is in the form of methyl-mercury (MeHg). The consumption of Salema (Archosargus rhomboidalis) showed the highest level of weekly exposure to mercury (1.0 ng Hg/body weight/week), especially for adult males (M > 15), showing up fine when compared to the maximum levels the display set (3,300 ng Hg/body weight/week).