Risk assessment of human Hg exposure through consumption of fishery products in Ceará state, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The contamination of fish and aquaculture products may prove an obstacle to achieve the economic potential of the fishery sector worldwide. Seafood is a key source of Hg exposure to human consumers. Thus, it is necessary to monitor current contamination levels and formulate future scenarios of exposure to pollutants as supporting measures to improve, in the short and medium term, the sustainability of the fishing sector and guarantee food safety. In the short term, players in the private sector and governmental agencies need to provide up-to-date production data and to follow international recommendations, as it relates to seafood quality and sustainable production chains. Here, we provide an assessment of the fishery production in Ceará State, Brazil, and synthetize the present knowledge on Hg concentrations in fisheries and aquaculture products associated with their relative economic and consumers' diet relevance. The present assessment serves as a model study to produce a regionalized inventory of Hg concentrations in accordance with the national and international food safety guides and to estimate the risk of exposure to Hg of human populations through fisheries consumption. We show that legal Hg limits does not represent safe consumption levels, as exposure risk is a combined effect of trophic level, a proxy of Hg concentrations, consumption rates, and consumer age/weigh group. Most seafood species in Ceará have no restriction to human consumption, with a few exceptions. Children at a subsistence level mainly consuming fish are at most exposure risk. The overall information is graphically presented aiming to increase public perception on the theme and proposition of mitigating actions by the respective stakeholders.