| Meeting Report: Methylmercury in Marine Ecosystems—From Sources to Seafood Consumers Celia Y. Chen,1 Nancy Serrell,2 David C. Evers,3 Bethany J. Fleishman,2 Kathleen F. Lambert,4 Jeri Weiss,5 Robert P. Mason,6 and Michael S. Bank7 1Department of Biological Sciences and 2Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA; 3BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, Maine, USA; 4Ecologic: Analysis and Communications, Woodstock, Vermont, USA; 5U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 6Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Avery Point, Connecticut, USA; 7Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Abstract
Mercury and other contaminants in coastal and open-ocean ecosystems are an issue of great concern globally and in the United States, where consumption of marine fish and shellfish is a major route of human exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) . A recent National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences–Superfund Basic Research Program workshop titled "Fate and Bioavailability of Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems and Effects on Human Exposure," convened by the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program on 15–16 November 2006 in Durham, New Hampshire, brought together human health experts, marine scientists, and ecotoxicologists to encourage cross-disciplinary discussion between ecosystem and human health scientists and to articulate research and monitoring priorities to better understand how marine food webs have become contaminated with MeHg. Although human health effects of Hg contamination were a major theme, the workshop also explored effects on marine biota. The workgroup focused on three major topics: a) the biogeochemical cycling of Hg in marine ecosystems, b) the trophic transfer and bioaccumulation of MeHg in marine food webs, and c) human exposure to Hg from marine fish and shellfish consumption. The group concluded that current understanding of Hg in marine ecosystems across a range of habitats, chemical conditions, and ocean basins is severely data limited. An integrated research and monitoring program is needed to link the processes and mechanisms of MeHg production, bioaccumulation, and transfer with MeHg exposure in humans. Key words: bioaccumulation, human health, mercury biomonitoring, mercury exposure, methylmercury. Environ Health Perspect 116:1706–1712 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.11211 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 23 July 2008]
Address correspondence to C.Y. Chen, Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, HB 6044, Hanover, NH 03755 USA. Telephone: (603) 646-2376. Fax: (603) 646-1347. E-mail: celia.chen@dartmouth.edu We thank C. Thompson for guidance and participation and A. Stern for his help with editing the manuscript. We also thank all the workshop participants for their valuable input and insights. This publication was made possible by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant P42 ESO7373 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and NIEHS Workshop Grant 3 P42 ES007373-13S1. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 28 December 2007 ; accepted 23 July 2008.
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