Biol Trace Elem Res (2017) 175:237–243

DOI 10.1007/s12011-016-0745-9

Mercury Human Exposure in Populations Living

Around Lake Tana (Ethiopia)
G. Habiba 1 & G. Abebe 2 & Andrea G. Bravo 3 & D. Ermias 4 & Ǻ. Staffan 5 & K. Bishop 5

Received: 19 January 2016 / Accepted: 16 May 2016 / Published online: 9 June 2016
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Abstract A survey carried out in Lake Tana in 2015 found lightening soap on a daily basis had 2.5 times greater mercury
that Hg levels in some fish species exceeded internationally in scalp hair than non-users. Despite the different sources of
accepted safe levels for fish consumption. The current study mercury exposure mentioned above, the mercury concentra-
assesses human exposure to Hg through fish consumption tions of the scalp hair of participants of this study were below
around the Lake Tana. Of particular interest was that a dietary levels deemed to pose a threat to health.
intake of fishes is currently a health risk for Bihar Dar resi-
dents and anglers. Hair samples were collected from three Keywords Bihar Dar . Fish . Hair . Mercury . Occupation .
different groups: anglers, college students and teachers, and Residents
daily laborers. A questionary includes gender, age, weight,
activity. Frequency of fish consumption and origin of the eaten
fish were completed by each participant. Mercury concentra-
tions in hair were significantly higher (P value <0.05) for Abbreviations
anglers (mean ± standard deviation 0.120 ± 0.199 μg/g) than ANOVA analysis of variance statistics
college students (mean ± standard deviation 0.018 BoD burden of disease
± 0.039 μg/g) or daily workers (mean ± standard deviation EPA Environmental Protection Authority
16 ± 9.5 ng/g). Anglers consumed fish more often than daily FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
workers and college group. Moreover, there was also a strong Hg Mercury
correlation (P value <0.05) between the logarithms of total IPCS International Program on Chemical Safety
mercury and age associated with mercury concentration in ND not detected
scalp hair. Mercury concentrations in the hair of men were NRC National Research Council (Washington, DC)
on average twice the value of the women. Also, users of skin SMEC Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation
UNDP United Nations Development Program
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
* G. Habiba DTIE Division of Technology, Industry, and
habibag2@gmail.com
Economics
WHO World Health Organization
1
Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources, Addis Ababa University,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2
Department of Zoological Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Introduction
Ababa, Ethiopia
3
Department of Ecology and Genetics, Limnology and Science for According to the Environmental Protection Authority of
Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden Ethiopia [10] report, Ethiopia has an estimated mercury (Hg)
4
Hawassa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia production of 40,600 kg/year. In addition to dental amalgam
5
Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish fillings (“silver” fillings), laboratory chemicals and other lab-
University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden oratory and medical equipment containing Hg are the main
238
sources for water ecosystems. One of organic form methyl-Hg
(MeHg) is of particular concern because it bioaccumulates and
biomagnifies in fish to levels that are many thousands of times
greater than levels in the surrounding water [33]. Indeed, the
general population is primarily exposed to MeHg through fish
and seafood (seafood includes shellfish and marine mammals,
such as whales) consumption [37]. The toxic MeHg can dam-
age the central nervous system [21] in severely exposed adults
[4, 15] and children [4]. For example, one fourth of house-
holds from Zieway islands developed a mental illness due to
high consumption of MeHg-contaminated fish [30].
Consumption of Hg-contaminated fish could cause abdominal
and lower back pain, progressive weakness, paresthesias, and
fatigue. Other researchers described that Hg-contaminated
fish causes weight loss [22], fingers curled, losing memory,
permanent nervous system damage, skin rash, neurological
symptoms such as dizziness or memory loss, generally a clin-
ical picture of Minamata disease seizure, hair falling, loss of
hearing, and inability to concentrate [15]. It can also induce an
increase of cholesterol as a risk factor for the myocardial
infarction and coronary/cardiovascular disease [19]. Even
prenatal exposure to MeHg caused increasing of diastolic
and systolic blood pressures in boys at the age of 7 in the
children from the Faroe Islands [31] and increased diastol-
ic blood pressure at age 15 years in Seychelles [27].
Moreover, a study on fish-eating Amazonian communities
indicated that there are inverse relations between Hg ac-
cumulation on biomarkers and oxidative stress [16] and
lower increase in blood pressure [8].
In Ethiopia, with respect to the increase of population, the
exploitation of the food resource existing in the rivers and
lakes has received special attention. Of the total annual fish
potential production of lakes, Lake Tana could contribute
more than half of the estimate as it is the largest freshwater
reservoir of Ethiopia [24].
Investigation on some Ethiopian lakes indicated that some
fish species contain high Hg concentrations. For example,
piscivorous big Barbs (Labeobarbus intermedius) in Lake
Hawassa has exceeded the marketing limit of the European
Union 0.5 mg/kg [7]. It has been reported that Hg concentra-
tions are significantly higher in L. intermedius than in Clarias
gariepinus and Oreochromis niloticus in Lake Hawassa [9]
and Koka [9, 12]. However, Barbus intermedius seemed to
have higher THg concentrations than O. niloticus only in Lake
Ziway [12]. In particular, in Lake Tana, THg concentrations in
fish muscle indicated that more than half of Labeobarbus
megastoma, 33.3 % of L. intermedius, and 31.2 % of
C. garipinus exceeded the recommended level of 0.3 μg/g of
Hg [17], which designed to protect at-risk groups [37]. Even 71
and 27 % of L. megastoma in March and October, 25 %
C. garipinus, and 22 % of L. intermedius in March 2014
exceeded the recommended [38] of 0.5 μg/g, which is the mar-
keting limit for Hg in fish [17].
Habiba et al.
In Ethiopia as in many other African countries, the connec-
tion between dietary intake of fish and human exposure to Hg
accumulation has not been assessed; it has been however
shown that hair Hg concentration exceeded 50 μg/g in gold
miners, anglers, and their families on Lake Victoria [18].
Bihar Dar, the capital of Amhara Region, is on the southern
shore of Lake Tana where the Abay (Blue Nile) river flows
out. The current study aims to investigate the exposure of
Bihar Dar residents via fish consumption to Hg, with special
emphasis in anglers. Furthermore, this study also addresses
the effect of the use of skin lightening products that may
contain Hg, in the form of inorganic Hg salts on Hg concen-
trations in scalp hair. Indeed, although such products are ille-
gal in many countries, they are commonly used in certain
African and Asian countries [36].
Methods
Study Area
Sampling took place between December 2014 and January
2015, Bihar Dar city. Bihar Dar, the capital of Amhara
Region, is on the southern shore of Lake Tana where the
Abay (Blue Nile) river flows out (Fig. 1). The city is located
approximately 578 km north-northwest of Addis Ababa, hav-
ing a latitude and longitude of 11° 36′ 0″ N and 37° 23′ 0″ E
and an elevation of about 1800 m above sea level. In 2007, the
Bihar Dar Special Zone had a total population of 221,991 of
that 81.1 % were urban inhabitants, with the rest of the pop-
ulation living at rural kebeles around Bihar Dar. In the town of
Bihar Dar itself, there are 155,428 inhabitants; the rest of
urban population is living at Meshenti, Tis Abay, and Zege
towns which are part of the Bahir Dar Special Zone [6]. At
least, another 15,000 people are reported to live on the islands
of Lake Tana [29].
Study Subjects
Fifty-three hair samples were collected from volunteers of the
Bihar Dar city. Those volunteers selected were from colleges
(students and teachers) (females = 7 and males = 17) with the
age range 17–49, anglers and their families (females = 8 and
males = 15) age range between 9 and 45, and participants with
other occupation (males = 5) with the age range of 18–25,
around Lake Tana.
Hair Sample Collection and Analysis
Determination of Hg in hair and blood allows exposure to be
quantified and linked to possible health effects. It also permits
estimates of the burden of disease (BoD). WHO is applying its
BoD framework approach to better quantify the health
Mercury Human Exposure in Populations Living Around Lake Tana
Fig. 1 Bahir Dar city map
impacts [35] when the populations are not exposed to elemen-
tal Hg. Hair samples were collected as described in [23].
Approximately 100 strands of hair (~50 mg) were gathered
and cut closer to the occipital region of the scalp (approxi-
mately the diameter of a pencil eraser). Samples tagged and
placed in plastic bags.
Those who were willing to give hair samples were also
asked to fill the questionnaire. They were informed about
the confidentiality of the signed agreement before they an-
swered the questionnaire. This questionnaire was adopted
and modified from [33] guideline. The questionnaire includes
information on (1) age, (2) gender, (3) occupation, (4) fre-
quency of fish and servings, (5) fish species often served, (6)
presence of hair coloring, (7) health problems, and others.
Amhara National, Regional State Health Bureau, and
Ethiopian National Research Ethics Review Committee ethi-
cally reviewed this study. We assigned three groups identified
under occupation: group 1, anglers and their families—
they are dependent on fishing from Lake Tana in addition
to their farming work; group 2, college students and
teachers—especially students who do not live on a campus.
In addition, students are employed in private or governmental
organizations and they are self-sponsored; and group 3, other—
illiterate and daily workers (horse riders around Lake Tana).
239
Hair Hg analysis was done at the Department of Aquatic
Sciences and Assessment Laboratory at the Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences. Determination of total
Hg carried out using EPA method (7473) with PerkinElmer
SMS 100 Hydra c. The SMS 100 uses a decomposition fur-
nace to release Hg vapor instead of the chemical reduction
step used in traditional liquid-based analyzers. This instru-
ment works using thermal decomposition and amalgamation
coupled with atomic absorption [25]. Standard samples for
calibration of hair (IAEA-085/IAEA-086) (IAEAf) have been
used to control the digestion and analytical readings. The ac-
cepted precision level of the standard samples for 10 tripli-
cates was higher than 97 %. Hair samples were not cleaned
before analysis. Three replicates of each hair sample have
been analyzed, and the mean value was recorded with a stan-
dard deviation of (0.001 μg/g). About 0.5 mg of hair sample
was put on a sample boat. Sample boat was then inserted to the
SMS 100 Hg analyzer. Sample dried with 300C0 for 45 s then
decomposed with 700C0 for 150 s in an oxygen-rich furnace
to release all the decomposition products, including Hg. These
products then carried in a stream of oxygen to a catalytic
section of the furnace heated with 600C0 for 60s. Any halo-
gens or oxides of nitrogen and sulfur in the sample trapped on
the catalyst. The remaining vapor then carried to an
240
amalgamation cell that selectively traps Hg by gold trap tem-
perature of 600–700 °C for 30 s. After the system was flushed
with a flow of 300 ml/min oxygen to remove any remain-
ing gasses or decomposition products, the amalgamation
cell was rapidly heated, releasing Hg vapor. Flowing ox-
ygen carries the Hg vapor through an absorbance cell
positioned in the light path of a single wavelength atomic
absorption spectrophotometer. Absorbance was measured
at the 253.7 nm wavelength as a function of the Hg.
Samples (n = 20) sent to IVL Swedish Environmental
Research Institute to verify the results of Hg.
Statistical Analysis
Distributional properties of the data and transformations re-
quired to meet the assumptions of normality were checked
prior to the analysis of the data. Accordingly, THg and age
were log transformed. Differences in ln(THg) concentrations
in scalp hair between groups were tested by ANOVA and
Tukey post hoc tests. Data analyses have been carried out with
SPSS software (version 16.0), and statistical significance (P
value) was set at (0.05).
Results
Fifty-three scalp hair samples were collected from Bahir Dar
residents and were analyzed for THg. THg concentrations in
scalp hair of seven individuals were below the detection limit,
and the highest concentration reported was 0.645 μg/g (mean
± SD 0.069 ± 0.147 μg/g, median = 0.009 μg/g) (Table 1).
Skewness and kurtosis of THg concentration distribution in-
dicate that most of the individuals presented low THg concen-
trations in scalp hair. Indeed, 25 % of the volunteers contained
less than 0.005 μg/g and 75 % less than 0.029 μg/g THg in
scalp hair.
From the questionnaire, we found a few anglers (n = 6) that
routinely handles gasoline or kerosene. From the participants,
there were no indications of exposure to inorganic Hg.
Participants with other occupation had higher average weight
than anglers and students and lecturer groups (61.2, 57.6, and
53 kg, respectively). Out of all participants, only two of them
smoke cigarettes. Two participants with other occupation, four
Table 1 Mean ± SD hair THg values for three respondent groups
Group Gender THg in scalp hair (μg/g)
M F Range Mean ± SD
Anglers and families 15 8 ND–0.64 0.12 ± 0.19
Students and teachers 17 7 ND–0.2 0.017 ± 0.039
Other 5 0.005–0.028 0.016 ± 0.009
Habiba et al.
anglers, and six for the students and lecturer group drank
alcohol once per week, and from the fishermen’s group, only
two respondents drank alcohol once per day. No one of the
participants had a diagnosis of a disease consequence of THg
exposure.
Occupation
Hair THg accumulation varied between the study groups
(Fig. 2). Analysis of variance carried out with the normalized
ln(THg) result indicates that THg was significantly (P < 0.05,
F = 6.15) higher on anglers than students and lecturer groups.
Angler groups had a median of 0.011 μg/g which was lower
THg as compared to the participants with other occupation
with a median of 0.018 μg/g and higher than students and
lecturer group with a median of 0.006 μg/g (Table 1).
Fish Consumption
The frequency of fish meals/week varies between 0 and 7. It is
noteworthy to highlight the low fish consumption of volun-
teers, as 75 % of the participants consumed fish only once a
week. Analysis of variance results of hair THg have a positive
significant relation (P < 0.05) with fish-feeding habits of
whole respondents. Four respondents eat fish every day, and
63 % of angler group consumed fish once a week. Out of all
participants with other occupation and students and lecturer
group, 60 and 30 %, respectively, of them had fish meal once a
month (Fig. 3). This is significantly (P < 0.05) higher frequen-
cy of fish meal/week (mean ± SD 2.1 ± 2.7 fish meal/week,
P < 0.01, F = 13.08) than for the other groups with an average
of fish meal/week followed by students and lecturer group and
participants with other occupation. But, hair THg did not
show significant variation between anglers who had fish meal
once daily, once per week, and does not eat fish at all. Also,
there is no significant variation among groups of respondents
who had fishmeal once per week, once in a month, and who
has no fishmeal at all for students and lecturer groups.
Age and Hair THg
ANOVA test result indicated that THg (P < 0.05, R2 = 0.3)
increases as age year of angler group increase. The result of
Age (range) Daily soap users Fish consumers
Median Years % Users (%), serving
0.011 9–45 34.7 % 63, 1/week
0.006 17–49 52 % 30, 1/month
0.018 18–25 40 % 60, 1/month
Mercury Human Exposure in Populations Living Around Lake Tana
Fig. 2 Box plots of total mercury (THg) concentrations in scalp hair of
individuals grouped according to their occupation: (i) anglers, (ii)
students and teachers, and (iii) other. THg concentration in hairs of
screened women ( f ) is presented in gray box plot and in men (m) in
white box plots
this study is consistent with other studies of [23, 26].
However, THg does not show a significant correlation
(P < 0.05, R2 = 0.06) with the age of whole sample respon-
dents and the two groups other than anglers.
Gender
Analysis of THg was done in hair samples of 8 female and 15
male anglers, 7 females and 17 males of students and lecturer
group, and 5 males of participants with other occupation
(Table 1). This study discovered that males had high average
hair THg than females (mean ± SD 0.07 ± 0.166 μg/g, n = 37
Fig. 3 Box plots of total mercury
(THg) concentrations in scalp hair
of individuals grouped according
to their fish consumption
241
and 0.031 ± 0.06 μg/g, n = 16, respectively) (Fig. 2). In addi-
tion, the median value of THg for males (0.007) is higher than
females (0.005). But, the THg variation was not significant
among male and female groups. On average, THg in scalp hair
was 2.14 times higher for male than females in angler group.
Similarly, on students and lecturer group, males had high av-
erage hair THg (mean ± SD 0.012 ± 0.014 μg/g) than females
(mean ± SD 0.005 ± 0.02 μg/g).
Cosmetics, Skin Lightening Soaps, Hair Dye,
and Treatments
More than half of the participants (54 %) use skin lightening
soaps once a day, and 18.9 % of them use creams. Despite this,
the difference was not significant between soap users and non-
users; the individuals that use soaps daily accumulate 2.5
times higher THg in hair than non-users. The result of this
study is consistent with [20] and [18]. Two female and two
males dye their hair once per month. One male and one female
participant use hair treatment once per year.
Discussion
The hair THg levels were lower than the recommended
level of EPA [11] 1 μg/g risk level in all participants
(Fig. 2), without significant differences between male
and females. As compared to other African country stud-
ies in Botswana (mean ± SD 0.22 ± 0.21 μg/g) [3] (ranges
between 48.2 and 953 μg/g; mean value > 2 μg/g, respective-
ly), Tanzania [18, 20] (ranged from <0.1 to 54.8 μg/g), and
South Africa [34], this study participant had very low THg in
hair. In addition, our study participants had lower hair Hg than
242
that of studies in Romania (median 1.1 μg/g) [5], Indonesia
(mean ranging between 13 and 17 μg/g) [4], and USA (mean
value ranging between 0.2 and 0.38 μg/g) [23]. Some of the
studies mentioned [4, 5, 18, 34] were carried out close to
mining areas or chlor-alkali plants both known to be important
sources of Hg for the environment. However, to the best of our
knowledge, there are no such sources of Hg around Lake Tana
or upstream tributaries of Nile River. Despite that high THg
concentrations have been reported on THg survey in fish from
Lake Tana, it is important to highlight the low Hg exposure of
volunteers. Most of the studies have associated high exposure
to Hg with high fish consumption [1, 3, 5]. However, popula-
tions living around Lake Tana seem to consume fish rarely
(Fig. 3). This is consistent with the low fish consumption and
low protein intake by fish consumption reported in the year-
book of Fishery and Aquaculture of FAO [13] for Ethiopia.
We thus conclude that low exposure to Hg by the participants
is mainly due to the low fish consumption. A similar study by
Bełdowska and Falkowska [2] had also resulted in a sim-
ilar conclusion with this study. The levels of THg in hair
in the anglers and their families were similar to the an-
glers in Botswana with similar but slightly higher fish
consumption by fishermen in Arbamench, Hawassa, and
Zieway (on average, once and twice a day on some days)
[30] and the Okavango River (mean ± SD 3.2 ± 2.2
fish/week) in Botswana [3].
There are other possible factors explaining the low concen-
tration of THg in scalp hair of our participants. One of those
could be seasonal variability of Hg accumulation in fish of
Lake Tana. According to the Lake Tana fish THg study [17],
THg was high in March 2014 and it was low in October 2014.
In addition, human hair samples were taken in between
November and December, which is the fast preceding
Christmas for orthodox religion followers for 40 days between
25 November and 9 of January [32] during this time people
who are fasting do not eat fish (even this is controversial). The
other condition might be 50 % of respondents prefer to eat
O. niloticus than other species of fish. Participants of this
study have the same fish preference with those fishermen
studied by [30]. In our fish Hg survey we have carried out in
parallel study [17], we found that O. niloticus has a very low
Hg concentration in March 2014 and October 2014 (mean
± SD 0.066 ± 0.013 and 0.062 ± 0.067 μg/g, respectively, com-
pared to other sampled species of fish in Lake Tana.
Moreover, from the three species sampled in March,
L. megastoma, L. intermidius, and C. garipinus (>50, 33,
and 31 %, respectively) in the Lake Tana fishing study, all
had higher than the level of 0.3 mg/kg, which is designed to
protect at-risk groups [37]. In addition to this, 70, 25, and
22 % (L. megastoma, L. intermidius, and C. garipinus, respec-
tively) of March samples exceeded the recommended [38]
standards of 0.5 μg/g for Hg content. Therefore,
Labiobarbus species of fish and C. garipinus which were
Habiba et al.
sampled in March had Hg above the recommended levels,
indicating that this species of fish might have a risk of Hg
contamination for human health especially in March. In
October except for one species, L. megastoma, the species
sampled in Lake Tana fishing study all had lower than the
level of 0.5 μg/g, which is recommended by WHO/IPCS
[38] for marketing limit of Hg in fish.
Nevertheless, the angler group had higher mean hair THg
compared to participants with other occupation and students
and lecturer group (Fig. 2), consistent with another study of
Bravo et al. [5], likely because anglers consume fish more
often. In addition to this, 15 participants from two groups
(daily worker and students and lecturer group) do not eat fish
and they had less than 25 μg/g of THg in hair. This is because
fish is very expensive, and they cannot afford to buy it.
Similarly, Gordon et al. [14] has reported that fish is a luxury
food consumed by higher income groups because its price is
rising. However, the median (THg) for participants of group 3
(other) was higher (0.018 μg/g) than the college group
(0.06 μg/g); this might be because out of group 3 participants,
more than half percentage (60 %) of them had one fish
meal/month than the college group (30 %), indicating that
group 3 participants work on horse riding for transporting
wood and papyrus grass from the port of Lake Tana to Bahir
Dar city. Therefore, they have access to eat fish better than the
college group. Although, it is true that all respondents eat food
produced around Bahir Dar.
In this study, THg concentrations in hair were slightly
higher in males compared to females (Fig. 2), although the
difference was not significant. This is consistent with other
studies of [28] and [26].
Although we do not have statistical evidence to conclude
about the effect of skin and hair lightening products on THg
concentrations in scalp hair, we observed a higher concentra-
tion of THg in the hair of daily users. Therefore, the concen-
tration of Hg in soaps and cosmetics we are using has to be
studied in the future.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This is the first study assessing human exposure to Hg using
hair in Ethiopia. Specifically, this study assessed the effect of
occupation, age, frequency of fish meal, gender, and skin
lighting soap on the THg concentration of scalp hair in 53
volunteers. Generally, the concentration of Hg in Bahir Dar
resident’s hair was well below internationally accepted levels
of risk of Hg exposure due to low consumption of fish. Hair
Hg shows variation based on occupation, and the angler group
had higher mean hair Hg compared to participants with other
occupation and students and lecturer group. In addition to this,
males had somewhat higher hair Hg than females. Although
we did not estimate the concentration of Hg in soaps and
Mercury Human Exposure in Populations Living Around Lake Tana
cosmetics, it seems that daily cosmetic users presented higher
THg concentration in scalp hair. This study was carried out in
an area without point sources of Hg. More studies should be,
however, carried out in regions located close to mining areas
or to chlor-alkali plants.
Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the following
organizations that contributed to the completion of this work:
Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources, Addis Ababa University,
Mekelle University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,
and Bihar Dar Fisheries and Aquatic Life Research Center. In addition,
we are grateful to thank all participants of this research in all ways in-
cluding Mr. Mamo.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest The co-authors declare that they have no conflict
of interest.
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