TRACE ELEMENTS IN MEDICINE (MOSCOW)
2016, 17(2): 3-9
TOPICAL PAPERS

MERCURY AS A MOST IMPORTANT ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANT: THE BODY LEVELS OF MERCURY AND OTHER TOXIC CHEMICAL ELEMENTS IN INDIGENOUS RESIDENTS OF NORTH-EAST RUSSIA

A.L. Gorbachev

North-East State University, Portovaya str. 13, Magadan, 685000, Russia

DOI: 10.19112/2413-6174-2016-17-2-3-9 

ABSTRACT. The paper presents reference data on metal contamination of the arctic biosphere. The main pollutants in the region are mercury, lead and cadmium that can come into the body via trophic chains and cause toxic effects. In the paper, nutritional way of mercury intoxication has been shown in habitants of the region for whom marine products are the traditional food. The reference data on the mercury normal content in human biological media are also presented.
We have carried out an own research on the body content of mercury and other toxic elements (lead and cadmium) in some indigenous populations inhabiting Magadan region and Chukotka. Hair samples were chosen as biological samples for elemental analysis. The analysis was performed in the laboratory of Centre for Biotic Medicine (Moscow) by ICP-AES/ICP-MS methods.
Our study revealed no dramatic increase in mercury or other toxic elements in indigenous subjects. An exception was indigenes of the Okhotsk sea coast (Magadan region), who were found to be high in lead. In Kamchadal male examinees of that region the mercury exceeded the baseline level, being however within permissible limits.
Indigenous males and females residing in Magadan city showed a tendency towards high level of mercury as compared to that of Europeans (Caucasians). The ethnic differences might be caused by nutritional differences because of indigenes’ seafood preference or genetically determined mercury metabolism.

KEYWORDS: biosphere pollution, indigenes of the North, seafood, mercury.