Chemical Forms of Mercury in Human Hair Reveal Sources of Exposure
Language
en
Article de revue
This item was published in
Environmental Science and Technology. 2016-09-23, vol. 50, n° 19, p. 10721-10729
American Chemical Society
English Abstract
Humans are contaminated by mercury in different forms from different sources. In practice, contamination by methylmercury from fish consumption is assessed by measuring hair mercury concentration, whereas exposure to ...Read more >
Humans are contaminated by mercury in different forms from different sources. In practice, contamination by methylmercury from fish consumption is assessed by measuring hair mercury concentration, whereas exposure to elemental and inorganic mercury from other sources is tested by analysis of blood or urine. Here, we show that diverse sources of hair mercury at concentrations as low as 0.5 ppm can be individually identified by specific coordination to C, N, and S ligands with high energy-resolution X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Methylmercury from seafood, ethylmercury used as a bactericide, inorganic mercury from dental amalgams, and exogenously derived atmospheric mercury bind in distinctive intermolecular configurations to hair proteins, as supported by molecular modeling. A mercury spike located by X-ray nanofluorescence on one hair strand could even be dated to removal of a single dental amalgam. Chemical forms of other known or putative toxic metals in human tissues could be identified by this approach with potential broader applications to forensic, energy, and materials science.Read less <
English Keywords
Mercury
hair
speciation
XANES
spectroscopy