Fish consumption and hair mercury levels in women of childbearing age, Martin County, Florida.

The health effects of mercury in humans are mostly on the developing nervous system. Pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding must be targeted in order to decrease mercury exposure to the populations at highest risk-infants, unborn fetuses, and young children. This purpose of this study is to understand the demographics of fish-consumption patterns among women of childbearing age (including pregnant women) in Martin County, Florida, and to analyze the associations of mercury levels in participants' hair with socio-demographic variables in order to better design prevention messages and campaigns. Mercury concentrations in hair samples of 408 women ages 18-49 were assessed. Data on demographic factors, pregnancy status, fish consumption, and awareness of fish advisories were collected during personal interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. The geometric and arithmetic means of hair mercury concentration were 0.371 and 0.676 µg/g of hair. One-fourth of the respondents had a concentration ≥1 µg/g of hair. Consuming a higher number of fish meals per month, consumption of commercially purchased or locally caught fish higher in mercury, White race and income ≥$75,000 were positively associated with the likelihood of having higher hair mercury levels. This study confirms the existence of a higher overall mean hair mercury level and a higher percentage of women with ≥1 µg/g hair mercury level than those reported at the national level and in other regional studies. This suggests the need for region-specific fish consumption advisories to minimize mercury exposure in humans.

Local perspectives on the environmental public health tracking program.

Strong state-local relationships within the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (Tracking Program) can enhance the ability of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local health departments to collect and analyze data that would help determine links between environmental exposure and health. Since the National Association of County & City Health Officials is particularly interested in how local-state partnerships could benefit the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, this article features strategies to engage local health departments. First, state-local facilitated discussions have been shown to positively impact the public's health. Second, Martin County conducted a program that taught women to avoid overconsumption of high-mercury seafood, which was also implemented in other Florida counties. Finally, the Cincinnati Health Department initiated a project that promoted data sharing with the state, and the results have also been promising. Such efforts indicate that state-local partnerships have the potential to support and enrich the Tracking Program.