{"id":4916,"date":"2014-06-05T12:02:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T16:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inbre\/?page_id=4916"},"modified":"2014-06-05T12:02:56","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T16:02:56","slug":"taylor","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/research\/surf-training-award\/taylor\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury and selenium concentrations in coastal marine fishes and risks to human consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Investigator:<\/strong>\u00a0David Taylor, Roger Williams University<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scientific Theme:<\/strong>\u00a0Molecular Toxicology<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Fish are an excellent source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids that provide numerous health benefits to\u00a0human consumers. However, contaminants in some fish may be sufficiently high to adversely affect human\u00a0health. For example, methylmercury (MeHg) is a toxic environmental contaminant that poses significant risk\u00a0to human health, and exposure occurs mainly through dietary intake of contaminated fish. To minimize\u00a0MeHg exposure, government agencies issue consumption advisories to inform the public of potential health\u00a0risks of eating fish. The successful development and implementation of consumption advisories for marine\u00a0fishes, however, are limited by several key factors. First, advisories focused on marine fish consumption lack\u00a0geographic specificity, and thus, are possibly misguided and ineffective because they do not account for\u00a0small-scale spatial variations in MeHg contamination. Second, national advisories emphasize fish species\u00a0that are identified as high-risk for MeHg, and thus, there is sparse information for presumed low-risk species.\u00a0This undermines health benefits provided by fish that pose little threat to the health of fish-consuming\u00a0citizens. Third, there are limited available data on the co-occurrence of nutrients in fish tissue that mitigate\u00a0MeHg toxicity, e.g., protective effects of selenium (Se). Acquiring such data will support public health risk\u00a0assessments and risk management decisions related to the issuance of fish consumption advisories. This\u00a0study will focus on mercury (Hg) and Se bioaccumulation in commonly-consumed marine fish in RI, where\u00a0local fisheries are important dietary resources. Fish Hg data will be incorporated into exposure assessment\u00a0models to estimate human exposure to Hg due to local fish consumption. To evaluate the efficacy of this\u00a0modeling approach, results will be compared to national estimates of human Hg exposure and the reference\u00a0dose established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Information on human dietary\u00a0exposure to local fish Hg and Se will support the development of effective consumption advisories for fisheating\u00a0residents of RI.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Human Health Relevance:\u00a0<\/strong>Mercury is a pervasive and toxic environmental contaminant, and human exposure occurs primarily through\u00a0the consumption of contaminated fish. This study will measure: (1) mercury levels in marine coastal fishes,\u00a0and (2) selenium concentrations in fish tissue given this element\u2019s mitigating effect on mercury toxicity. As\u00a0such, this study will support public health risk assessments and risk management decisions related to the\u00a0issuance of fish advisories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investigator:\u00a0David Taylor, Roger Williams University Scientific Theme:\u00a0Molecular Toxicology Abstract:\u00a0Fish are an excellent source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids that provide numerous health benefits to\u00a0human consumers. However, contaminants in some fish may be sufficiently high to adversely affect human\u00a0health. For example, methylmercury (MeHg) is a toxic environmental contaminant that poses significant risk\u00a0to human health, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":0,"parent":10206,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-twocol.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-4916","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4916\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}