TABLE 5.
Methylmercury exposure, mild mental retardation incidence, and DALYs for selected populations175
| Population (reference) | Mean (SD) hair mercury levels (μg/g) |
% of infants losing ≥2 IQ points |
Incidence of mild mental retardation per 1000 infants |
DALYs per 1000 infants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazilian subsistence fishing population near the Tapajós River in a gold mining region of the Amazon249 |
16.0 (18.92) | 62.44 | 17.37 | 202.8 |
| Chinese fish consumers in Wujiazhan, downstream of a methylmercury-polluted river250 |
2.92 (11.8) | 27.43 | 5.16 | 60.6 |
| Columbian fishing village in the San Jorge River basin near local gold mining activities251 |
5.78 (1.21) | 0.02 | 3.89 | 45.7 |
| Canadian subsistence fishing Nunavik Inuit people in the Arctic207 |
4.5 (1.9) | 0.19 | 3.09 | 36.8 |
| Greenland subsistence fishing Inuit people in the Disko Bay206 | 3.2 (3.4) | 2.28 | 2.52 | 29.9 |
| Canadian fish consumers of Asian-Canadian descent in the Great Lakes “Area of Concern”252 |
2.35 (0.55) | 0.00 | 1.76 | 20.9 |
| Japanese fish consumers in the Akita Prefecture253 | 2.10 (0.98) | 0.00 | 1.45 | 17.3 |
| Canadian sport fishers in the lake St. Pierre region of Quebec254 |
0.68 (0.85) | 0.00 | 0.60 | 7.2 |