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Martha Harnly,¹ Sharon Seidel,¹ Primitivo Rojas,¹ Raymond Fornes,² Peter Flessel,² Daniel Smith,¹ Richard Kreutzer,¹ and Lynn Goldman³

¹Environmental Health Investigations Branch and ²Environmental Health Laboratory Branch of the California Department of Health Services, Berkeley, California 94704 USA
³U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. 20460 USA

Abstract
To assess the impact of elevated levels of inorganic mercury in soil and dust and organic mercury in fish, biological monitoring was conducted among Native Americans living next to an inactive mercury mine in Clear Lake, California. Of resident tribal members, 46% (n = 56) participated in biomonitoring. Urine mercury levels are equivalent to background, indicating that soil and dust exposures among study participants are not substantial. The average blood organic mercury level among study participants is 15.6 ± 8.8 µg/l (n = 44) , which is higher than levels reported by others among those who do not consume fish (2 µg/l) . Consistent with results from other studies, a correlation between fish consumption and blood organic mercury is observed (p = 0.03) . The margin between observed and established adverse effect levels for adults is examined for blood organic mercury and found to be less than 10-fold for 20% of the study population. Protective public health efforts for the study population and other similarly exposed populations, notably those who consume commercial fish products, are considered. Key words: contaminated soil, fish advisories, fish consumption, inorganic mercury, methyl mercury, Native Americans. Environ Health Perspect 105:424-429 (1997)

Address correspondence to M. Harnly, Environmental Health Investigations Branch, California Department of Health Services, 151 Berkeley Way, Annex 10, Berkeley, CA 94704 USA.

Work was conducted by the California Department of Health Services and does not represent the policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Funding was provided by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. We gratefully acknowledge Guirguis Guirguis for scientific expertise and the Elem Tribal leadership for its participation.

Received 31 July 1996 ; accepted 21 January 1997.