Survey of total mercury in total diet food composites and an estimation of the dietary intake of mercury by adults and children from two Canadian cities, 1998-2000

Total mercury was measured in 259 total diet food composites from two Canadian cities. Levels were generally low, with 46% of the composites having concentrations below the limit of detection, which ranged from 0.026 to 0.506 ng g(-1) . The fish category contained the highest mercury concentrations, which averaged 67 ng g(-1) and ranged from 24 to 148 ng g(-1) . All composites were below the Canadian guideline for total mercury in fish of 0.5 ppm. Dietary intakes of mercury averaged 0.022 mug kg(-1) body weight/day (mug kg(-1) day(-1)), and ranged from 0.012 mug kg(-1) day(-1) for females over 65 years old to 0.062 mug kg(-1) day(-1) for 0-1-month-old infants. For fish consumers, fish contributed to more than half of the ingested mercury. All intakes were well below Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes, expressed on a daily basis, of 0.71 mug kg(-1) day(-1) total mercury and 0.47 mug kg(-1) day(-1) methyl mercury, and also below a recent Health Canada recommended maximum methyl mercury intake of 0.2 mug kg(-1) day(-1) for children and women of child-bearing age.