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Global seafood production practices and trade patterns contribute to disparities in exposure to methylmercury

Nature Food volume 6, pages 491–502 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Seafood consumption is a major pathway for exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), a globally pervasive neurotoxin. Yet, how upstream processes in the seafood value chain influence MeHg exposure remains poorly understood. Here we quantified MeHg in seafood production, trade and consumption in 2019 around the world. We found that countries with seafood-MeHg exposures beyond the recommended threshold by the World Health Organization were predominately high-income countries. These countries experienced a tenfold increase in exposure levels compared with low-income countries, due to greater consumption and long-overlooked higher MeHg concentrations in seafood inherited from production. Notably, 43% of seafood MeHg in production was redistributed through seafood trade, marked by inequality, as exports from high-income to lower-income countries contained higher seafood-MeHg concentrations. These exposures may have resulted in 61,800 global premature deaths and economic losses of around US$2.87 trillion, underscoring the need to change seafood production practices and trade patterns.

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Fig. 1: MeHg concentrations in wild-caught seafood by country and ocean.
Fig. 2: MeHg concentrations and masses in the seafood value chain of key countries.
Fig. 3: MeHg concentrations in imported seafood in import-dominated countries.
Fig. 4: MeHg in seafood consumption globally.
Fig. 5: Inequality analyses of seafood-MeHg exposure by income levels.

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Data availability

All Hg-related data generated from this study are available in the Supplementary Information. The seafood quantity data are publicly available via the FAO FishStatJ online database at www.fao.org/fishery/en/topic/166235?lang=en. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The R codes for data analyses and visualization are available upon request to S.W. at shxw@tsinghua.edu.cn or qrwu@tsinghua.edu.cn.

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Acknowledgements

This study is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 42407138, Q.C.; grant no. 22222604, Q.W.; and grant no. 42394094, Q.W.), International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program (Talent Introduction Program) (grant no. YJ20210103, Q.C.), Shuimu Scholar Fellowship from Tsinghua University (grant no. 2020SM075, Q.C.), Special fund of State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (grant no. 22L02ESPC, S.W.) and New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE (S.W.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Qinqin Chen, Qingru Wu, Yuying Cui & Shuxiao Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Regional Environment and Sustainability, Beijing, China

    Qinqin Chen, Qingru Wu, Yuying Cui & Shuxiao Wang

  3. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex, Beijing, China

    Qinqin Chen, Qingru Wu, Yuying Cui & Shuxiao Wang

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  1. Qinqin Chen
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Contributions

Q.C., Q.W. and S.W. conceived the idea. Q.C. compiled the seafood Hg concentration database, conducted the statistical analysis and drafted and revised the manuscript. Y.C. performed the health and economic damage modelling. Q.W. and S.W. provided expertise in interpreting results and provided important critiques, supervised the project and were in charge of the overall study. All authors contributed to the discussion, revision and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qingru Wu or Shuxiao Wang.

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Nature Food thanks Jessica Brandt, Ping Li, Zhencheng Xing and Jun Xu for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Chen, Q., Wu, Q., Cui, Y. et al. Global seafood production practices and trade patterns contribute to disparities in exposure to methylmercury. Nat Food 6, 491–502 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01136-9

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