Knowledge、Attitude、Practice and risk assessment of mercury exposure through the consumption of fish from the mercury containminated area

• Main Authors: Yiu-Shin Chiu, 邱宇昕
• Other Authors: 韓柏檉
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/54081530548716661559

碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 公共衛生學研究所 === 95 === In the past, due to the procedure of producing chlor- alkali using the electrolysis method in mercury cell, The An-Shun factory of Taiwan Soda Industry of China Petrochemical Development Corporation located in the An-Nan District of Tainan consumed about 2.4 tons of mercury(Hg). The mire(mud), waste waters, and mud from the sewage works released from the factory, in addition to other factors such as improper operations, caused the severe mercury pollution of the whole factory area and neighboring areas. Therefore, the diet of residents in the neighborhood would inevitably be affected. As a result of that consuming fishery products is the main source of exposure to mercury, if the residents consumed contaminated fishery products for a long time peroid, their health , to some extent,would be under threat. Although residents of contaminated areas near-by The An-Shun factory are awaring that their environment has been polluted, whether they have changed their eating habits remains unknown. The main purpose of this research is to understand the consumption patterns of fish and fishery products by the residents of the contaminated area and their knowledge, attitude and behavior about consuming fish and fishery products, so the daily intake of mercury of the residents could be estimated and health risk assessment of mercury exposure should be done further. The object of study came mainly from the areas labeled “Mercury-Polluted” near-by The An-Shun factory, including those of Xian-Gong Li, Si-Cao Li, and Lu-Er Li. Total 165 people were collected. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire so as to find out their fishery product consumption patterns, and their commonly consumed fishery products were bought at where they live according to the answers on the questionnaire. All fish samples are analyzed of their mercury concentration by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry（Hiranuma HG-310）after pre-treatment of the samples. After analyzing the consumption patterns of fish and fishery products of the residents, we found that generally they like to eat fish and used to eat fish in daily life. The older people tend to eat more fish than younger people. Although the mostly eaten fish were Tilapia and Milkfish, the total amount of fish and fishery products being eaten are much higher, and it reach to 129.3 grams per day, and the average daily intake of MeHg is 0.44μg/kg day. It is much higher too. The percentage that Hazard Index exceed 1 is 43.6. It is much higher too. Generally the residents knew that fish are containminated, and mercury exposure does harm to human body, but they tended not to change the fish consumption pattern at last. So if the government authorities and public health workers can figure out the key factors that change the consumption pattern of the residents, and put it into real actions, that the health problems in relation to mercury exposure can effectively be solved.