Coal power plants lead to higher body levels of mercury: study

IIT-H researchers analyse the amounts of mercury in the hair of over 600 people in three cities

June 12, 2019 01:07 am | Updated 01:08 am IST - HYDERABAD

Asif Qureshi (right), associate professor, department of civil engineering
Dr. Asif Qureshi (R), Associate Professor, Dept of Civil Engineering, IIT-H & his PhD student Dr. Subhavana Katakam (L)

Asif Qureshi (right), associate professor, department of civil engineering Dr. Asif Qureshi (R), Associate Professor, Dept of Civil Engineering, IIT-H & his PhD student Dr. Subhavana Katakam (L)

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) researchers have found that people living in a city with active coal-fired power plants and consuming local aquatic produce may have higher body levels of mercury. They arrived at this finding after analysing the amounts of mercury in the hair of over 600 people in three cities in India.

The cities studied are Hyderabad, a city in the interior of the country with no specific local mercury source, Vasco da Gama, a city along the West Coast with no specific mercury source, but probably more fish-eaters and Nellore, a coastal city in Andhra Pradesh with several coal-fired power plants.

Mercury is a neurotoxin distributed in the environment and present in many products encountered in daily life. The research team led by Asif Qureshi, associate professor, department of civil engineering, collated information on demography, body mass index, dietary patterns, professions and other variables of the participants before analysing the amount of mercury in their bodies.

“Humans’ exposure to mercury comes from fish and rice grown in contaminated fields. Coal-fired power plants are estimated to be the largest emitters of mercury. Total mercury emissions in India are estimated to become around 540 tonnes in 2020. Mercury has been implicated in adverse effects on lungs and kidneys, and heart diseases,” explains Dr. Qureshi.

The study checked mercury levels through the hair samples from the back of the head since the sampling is non-invasive making it easy to both measure and correlate. It showed that nearly 5.5% of the people tested had mercury levels above the current US-EPA reference and women of child-bearing age had generally lower hair mercury than the women of child-bearing age in the US or EU. “It could be because participants in our study consume small sized fishes while those in US/EU consume Tuna and Cod,” he says.

Study recommends issuance of consumption advisories by governmental bodies (as in US) and helping consumers make informed decisions as fish is also a good source of nutrition. Power plants too should be taking more stringent measures to contain mercury released into the atmosphere, add the authors. The Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, a peer-reviewed Public Health journal, published the report.

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