Community-Led Assessment of Risk from Exposure to Mercury by Native Amerindian Wayana in Southeast Suriname

Table 1

Total hair mercury (Hg) concentrations (μg/g) and risk by population (community) and subgroup (age and gender) among residents of Puleowime (Apetina) and Kawemhakan (Anapayke).

Community/age group	Average age	No.	Geometric mean Hair hg (μg/g) ± SD	Median hair Hg (μg/g)	Hazard quotient (HQ)	Range hair Hg (μg/g)	Geometric mean of individual risk
Puleowime (Apetina)	24	158	14 ± 6	14	6.0	3–34	0.23
≤5 years	3	23	17 ± 7	20	7.0	5–28	0.25
Male	2	9	20 ± 6	23	9.0	7–28	0.45
Female	16	14	15 ± 7	16	6.0	5–26	0.18
6–14 years	9	53	14 ± 5	14	6.0	6–34	0.26
Male	9	27	16 ± 6	15	7.0	8–34	0.42
Female	10	26	13 ± 5	14	6.0	6–25	0.15
15–25 years	20	19	14 ± 7	14	6.0	6–32	0.16
Male	22	5	13 ± 5	14	6.0	6–18	0.20
Female	19	14	14 ± 8	13	6.0	8–32	0.15
26–45 years	35	35	15 ± 7	14	6.0	6–33	0.22
Male	35	13	15 ± 8	13	6.0	7–33	0.27
Female	34	22	14 ± 7	15	6.0	6–30	0.20
>45 years	59	28	13 ± 6	13	6.0	3–29	0.22
Male	58	13	11 ± 6	13	5.0	3–29	0.22
Female	62	15	14 ± 5	14	6.0	7–27	0.21
Population risk							93
Kawemhakan (Anapayke)	28	106	9 ± 4	9	4.0	2–19	0.01
≤5 years	3	17	9 ± 4	10	4.0	2–18	0.02
Male	3	9	8 ± 3	10	4.0	2–14	0.01
Female	3	8	10 ± 4	9	4.0	6–18	0.02
6–14 years	9	27	5 ± 2	6	2.0	2–9	0.00
Male	9	13	6 ± 2	5	3.0	3–9	0.00
Female	9	14	5 ± 2	6	2.0	2–8	0.00
15–25 years	22	8	8 ± 3	8	4.0	4–16	0.01
Male	22	6	8 ± 4	9	4.0	4–16	0.00
Female	22	2	9 ± 1	9	4.0	9-10	0.01
26–45 years	35	28	8 ± 4	8	4.0	4–18	0.01
Male	36	17	9 ± 4	9	4.0	4–18	0.03
Female	34	11	7 ± 2	7	3.0	4–11	0.00
>45 years	59	26	10 ± 4	10	4.0	5–19	0.02
Male	61	9	11 ± 4	13	5.0	5–18	0.07
Female	59	17	9 ± 4	8	4.0	6–19	0.01
Population risk							18