Study On The Level Of Mercury In Aquatic Foods In Suzhou Area And Investigation On Mercury Intake Of Suzhou Residents

Objective:To establish an efficient and feasible mercury detection method in aquatic foods by using microwave digestion-atomic fluorescence spectrometry and by detecting the mercury level in fishery products and vegetables growing in water in Suzhou area to know the mercury pollution in Suzhou water system, then to estimate the mercury exposure level of Suzhou residents casued by fishery product and vegetables growing in water.Methods:Fishery products and vegetables growing in Tai-Lake and Yangcheng-Lake in Suzhou were analyzed by atomic fluorescence spectrometry after microwave digestion. The survey of food consumption frequency by asking food intake was carried out to estimate the mercury exposure caused by fishery products and vegetables that grow in water.Results:1. The method for determination of mercury is good at its sensibility and stability .The limit of detection is 0.0016μg/L. The relative standard deviation is 3.6%.The recovery is 89.0%-108.9%.2. Fourteen kinds of fishery products and vegetables were detected, mercury amounts ranged from 0-0.47 mg/kg. Crabs growing in Tai-Lake were polluted by mercury, mercury level of fat in male crabs exceed the tolerance limit. Six kinds of vegetables were also polluted by mercury .The amounts were different in variety of foods. 3. The mercury exposure caused by fishery products and vegetables growing in water on the investigated persons in the Dongshan group and the city group were 3.42,0.47μg/ kg BW respectively. The exposure was no difference in gender, but was in age, the group under 18 years old and between 18 years old to 60 years old had higher exposure than the group above 60 years old.