Mercury poisoning in women and infants inhabiting the Gangetic plains of Bihar: risk assessment

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 1275 - 19
• Main Authors: Kumar, Arun, Agarwal, Radhika, Kumar, Kanhaiya, Chayal, Nirmal Kumar, Kumar, Govind, Kumar, Rajiv, Ali, Mohammad, Srivastava, Abhinav, Aryal, Siddhant, Pandey, Tejasvi, Verma, Kumar Sambhav, Kumar, Dhruv, Gajbhiye, Rahul Laxman, Dhingra, Sameer, Pothuraju, Naresh, Peraman, Ramalingam, Bishwapriya, Akhouri, Nandan, Ranbir, Sharma, Ashok, Singh, Manisha, Ghosh, Ashok Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04.04.2025; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Bioaccumulation; Blood; Breast milk; Breastfeeding & lactation; Breastmilk; Carcinogens; Coal-fired power plants; Composition; Contaminants; Contamination; Correlation; Dimethylmercury; Environmental Exposure - analysis; Female; Food chains; Food contamination; Food contamination & poisoning; Geospatial mapping; Health aspects; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Humans; India - epidemiology; Industrial plant emissions; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infants; Informed consent; Lactating mothers; Medical research; Mercury; Mercury (metal); Mercury (planet); Mercury - analysis; Mercury - blood; Mercury - urine; Mercury poisoning; Mercury Poisoning - epidemiology; Methods; Methylmercury; Milk; Milk, Human - chemistry; Mothers; Nervous system; Plasma; Poisoning; Population studies; Prevention; Risk Assessment; Risk factors; Sediments; Toxicity; Urine; Young Adult; India; Bihar India; Geospatial mapping; Infants; Mercury poisoning; Breastmilk; Lactating mothers

Mercury is a persistent, bio-accumulative, and hazardous contaminant. When released into the environment, it accumulates in water sediments, converting it to poisonous methylmercury that enters the food chain. The present study was carried out in habitations from the 11 districts of Bihar (India). I...