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Effects of hair treatment on hair mercury—The best biomarker of methylmercury exposure?

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Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Aims and scope

Abstract

Objectives

Exposure misclassification is a major obstacle to obtain accurate dose-response relationships. In order to solve this problem, the impact of hair treatment on total mercury in hair was assessed in Japanese women.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out among 327 women at age 24–49 years to determine hair mercury levels and estimate daily mercury intakes from seafood by using a food frequency questionnaire.

Results

Hair mercury levels in the women and daily mercury intake ranged from 0.11 to 6.86 (median 1.63) μg/g and from 0.77 to 144.9 (median 15.0) μg/day, respectively. The hair mercury was positively correlated with the daily mercury intake (p<0.001). When the women were divided into two subgroups based on artificial hair-waving, hair coloring/dyeing, residence (non-fishing and fishing areas), and working status, a significant difference in the hair mercury level was observed between the women with and without artificial hair-waving only (p<0.001). The multiple regression analysis showed that the log-transformed hair mercury level was significantly related to the log-transformed daily mercury intake (standardized regression coefficient βs=0.307) and artificial hair-waving (βs=−0.276); but not to hair coloring/dyeing, residence, working status or age. Permanent hair treatment was estimated to reduce total mercury in hair by approximately 30%, after adjusting for daily mercury intake and other possible factors.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that hair mercury is not the best biomarker of methylmercury exposure when a study population includes women with artificial hair-waving.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Akita University School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Hondo, 010-8543, Akita, Japan

    Miwako Dakeishi, Toyoto Iwata, Tomoko Ohno, Tomoko Kurosawa & Katsuyuki Murata

  2. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan

    Kunihiko Nakai, Keita Suzuki & Hiroshi Satoh

  3. Department of Epidemiology, National Institute for Minamata Disease, Minamata, Japan

    Mineshi Sakamoto & Xiao-Jie Liu

Authors
  1. Miwako Dakeishi
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  2. Kunihiko Nakai
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  3. Mineshi Sakamoto
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  4. Toyoto Iwata
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  5. Keita Suzuki
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  6. Xiao-Jie Liu
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  7. Tomoko Ohno
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  8. Tomoko Kurosawa
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  9. Hiroshi Satoh
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  10. Katsuyuki Murata
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katsuyuki Murata.

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Dakeishi, M., Nakai, K., Sakamoto, M. et al. Effects of hair treatment on hair mercury—The best biomarker of methylmercury exposure?. Environ Health Prev Med 10, 208–212 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02897712

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02897712

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