Mercury Exposure in Children's Health

Abstract Mercury exposure has become a serious, mainstream topic that has attracted mass amounts of global attention. Exposure to toxic levels of mercury is devastating to the developing central nervous system and general physiological systems in humans. Studies have suggested that mercury exposure can affect limb coordination, academic performance and mercury may have a role in other developmental disorders. There are many ways humans may be exposed to mercury in their daily lives. Populations with a high dietary intake of seafood are most likely to be at risk for mercury exposure. Mercury is a derivative from both natural and man-made sources and is known worldwide to be a contaminant in aquatic environments. There are multiple sources of mercury exposure. Some sources include fish consumption, thermometers, vaccinations, dental amalgams and the atmosphere.
This paper aims to examine the correlation between prenatal and postnatal mercury exposure in children and associated neurological functioning. Neurological functioning is defined as aspects affecting behaviour, learning, motor functioning and IQ. Throughout this paper, multiple literature sources are studied to assess the evidence of adverse effects of neurological development in children as a result of low- dose mercury exposure. Studies were done in multiple countries with various sample sizes and sources of exposure. Our review focuses on children because they are the most vulnerable to environmental threats as children are constantly growing and developing. Our studies also focus on exposure to low levels of mercury because it is not understood as well as acute toxicity to mercury exposure (PP, 2003). Chronic exposure to low level mercury is an important area of mercury health research because the general population is primarily exposed to this form. Understanding the mechanisms and exposure pathways can aid to limit mercury exposures. Also, future regulations on the safe level of mercury exposure can