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Exposure to mercury before birth may cause high blood pressure

June 08, 1999

Increased exposure to mercury can occur in communities whose diet is based on seafood. Following a study in the Faeroes,2 where the traditional diet includes a large element of whale-meat, an international research project co-funded by the European Union under its Environment and Climate research programme, examined 149 children from a fishing village on Madeira. Their mercury exposure comes mainly from a deep-sea fish named the black scabbard, a predatory species that accumulates mercury. Mercury exposures in the Madeira community were found to be even higher than on the Faeroes. In agreement with the findings on the Faeroe Islands, the researchers found that electrical signals from the brain, the "evoked potentials", tended to slow down when the children had been exposed to higher concentrations of mercury. The results of this study will be published in the July/August edition of the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology.

Perhaps the most intriguing finding, however, relates to blood pressure. In a separate study, researchers examined the results from the Faeroes and found that exposure to mercury before birth is associated with a greater risk of developing high blood pressure. Hypertension is a main determinant of cardiovascular disease, and the risk factors involved in early stages of increased blood pressure during childhood and adolescence are therefore of considerable clinical and public-health interest. The researchers measured blood pressure at age 7 years and were surprised to see that it tended to increase even at very small increases of mercury exposure. No further increase was seen at high mercury exposure levels. The results will be published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology.

"We have been very worried about the effects on brain function, because they suggest that prenatal mercury exposure will cause lasting effects on cognitive functions," says Professor Grandjean, who coordinated the research. "However, the new findings on blood pressure suggest that mercury may also contribute to the development of serious diseases and perhaps mortality."

The German government has recently taken steps to decrease its exposure limits for mercury. However, the new findings revealed that even doses of mercury below the new German limit correlated with increased blood pressure. In fact, above this limit, no clear effect was seen. Thus, contrary to expectation, the association occurred within an exposure range characteristic of communities not depending on marine food.

The new findings are being considered by the WHO-FAO experts, who will decide this week whether to recommend lower limits internationally.

Warwick, University of

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