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Everglades Mercury: Human Health Risk

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Mercury and the Everglades. A Synthesis and Model for Complex Ecosystem Restoration

Abstract

Human exposure to mercury, a potent neurotoxicant, results primarily from consumption of fish contaminated with methylmercury. The Everglades is a mercury-in-fish hotspot by reason of its high deposition rate of atmospheric mercury, agricultural inputs of sulfate, and the biogeochemistry of the ecosystem. Anglers and hunters and their families who eat their catch from the Everglades are a subpopulation potentially at risk of excessive mercury exposure. Current fish consumption advisories for the Everglades recommend that anglers and hunters limit and, in some cases refrain, from consuming freshwater, marine and estuarine fish species, as well as pig frogs and alligators. These advisories however may not be sufficiently protective, particularly for those that consume higher than average amounts of fish and game. Here, we develop and apply a probabilistic risk assessment to examine risks to sport and subsistence hunters and anglers consuming Everglades fish and wildlife, discuss advantages of this methodology, and examine the premise that current methods and advisories are sufficiently protective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, Institute of Public Health, Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Donald M. Axelrad & Alan Becker

  2. School of the Environment, Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Charles Jagoe

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  1. Donald M. Axelrad
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  2. Charles Jagoe
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  3. Alan Becker
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Correspondence to Donald M. Axelrad .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Coastal Watershed Institute, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA

    Darren G. Rumbold

  2. Aqua Lux Lucis, Inc, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Curtis D. Pollman

  3. Institute of Public Health, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Donald M. Axelrad

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Axelrad, D.M., Jagoe, C., Becker, A. (2019). Everglades Mercury: Human Health Risk. In: Rumbold, D., Pollman, C., Axelrad, D. (eds) Mercury and the Everglades. A Synthesis and Model for Complex Ecosystem Restoration. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32057-7_11

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