Delegates hair survey reveals high levels of mercury

The first negotiating meeting for a global treaty to eliminate anthropogenic sources of mercury was recently held in Stockholm .  As part of their awareness raising activities, the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) released a report on mercury sampling of hair.

All of the people negotiating a global treaty on mercury all had mercury in their hair, including the Swedish environment minister.

Mercury levels in the hair samples ranged from 93 ug/kg to 2956 ug/kg and 38% of the samples exceeded the US National Research Council mercury reference dose of 1000 ug/kg; (level for pregnant women to avoid adverse fetal brain development effects.)

Dr Mariann Lloyd Smith attended the meeting and had her hair tested. She was shocked at the results which showed she had 1 1/2 times the acceptable reference dose, and was above the average for both developed and developing countries.

Her results are very concerning for a vegetarian from a developed country like Australia. “The one exposure I can think of is the mercuric fungicides used in sugarcane grown in my region and question whether they have contaminated our local environment.” said Dr Lloyd-Smith

To test the hypothesis that delegates might differ in their human body burden of mercury, the data was separated into two groups; participants from developed countries and those from developing countries and CEIT.

A statistical analysis of the data shows that average mercury levels in hair of participants from developing countries and CEIT was approximately twice as high as levels found in participants from developed countries; 669 ug/kg and 1182 ug/kg. Of the samples that exceeded the reference dose; 81% were from developing and transition countries.

Those tested included:

45 government delegates and 8 representatives of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples. In addition, 4 Swedish members of Swedish parliamentary parties, Andreas Carlgren (Minister of Environment, the Center Party), Göran Hägglund (Social Minister Party Leader, Christian Democrats), Mona Sahlin (Party Leader, Social Democrats) and Maria Wetterstrand (Party Leader, The Greens), and 1 Swedish Olympic Game Gold Winner, Anja Pärson.

Read the report: A survey of mercury content in the hair of delegates at the first UN negotiating meeting for a global mercury treaty (2010)