A total of 1345 specimens belonging to 58 different species of wild fish and seafood from the western Mediterranean Sea were analyzed to assess total mercury levels and to estimate which species meet the EU recommendations for human consumption (0.5 μg g^-1 ww) in all cases. All fish species were caught off the Mediterranean coasts and intended for human consumption. All specimens were collected from local markets located in Spain, Italy and France that sell fish caught by local fishermen (Eivissa, Menorca, Mallorca, Alacant, L'Ampolla, Ametlla de Mar, Marseille, Genoa, Civitavecchia, Alghero) at different time periods. Mercury concentrations were measured by thermal decomposition-gold amalgamator-atomic absorption spectrometry. Only thirteen species were found that did not exceed 0.5 μg g^-1 ww in any specimen analyzed. These safe species were sardines (Sardina pilchardus), anchovies (Engraulis encrasicolus), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), picarel (Spicara smaris), blackspot seabream (Pagellus bogaraveo), gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), pearly razorfish (Xyrichtys novacula), surmullet (Mullus surmuletus), painted comber (Serranus scriba), brown meagre (Sciaena umbra), salema (Sarpa salpa), common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) and squid (Loligo vulgaris). These species occupy different trophic levels, have different lengths and average weights, but show a low mercury concentration than others living in the same environments. Potential human consumption of these species as sole source of fish would imply estimated weekly intakes representing between 49% and 70% of the recommended provisional tolerable weekly intake of methylmercury in the worst case. Health authorities should pay specific attention to species that do not meet EU thresholds and make appropriate precautionary health recommendations, especially for pregnant women and children.

This paper provides an overview of the last 40 years of use, and in many cases abuse, of the natural resources in Catalonia, a country that is representative of European countries in general, and especially those in the Mediterranean region. It analyses the use of natural resources made by mining, agriculture, livestock, logging, fishing, nature tourism, and energy production and consumption. This use results in an ecological footprint, i.e., the productive land and sea surface required to generate the consumed resources and absorb the resulting waste, which is about seven times the amount available, a very high number but very similar to other European countries. This overexploitation of natural resources has a huge impact on land and its different forms of cover, air, and water. For the last 25 years, forests and urban areas have each gained almost 3% more of the territory at the expense of agricultural land; those municipalities bordering the sea have increased their number of inhabitants and activity, and although they only occupy 6.7% of the total surface area, they account for 43.3% of the population; air quality has stabilized since the turn of the century, and there has been some improvement in the state of aquatic ecosystems, but still only 36% are in good condition, while the remainder have suffered morphological changes and different forms of nonpoint source pollution; meanwhile the biodiversity of flora and fauna remains still under threat. Environmental policies do not go far enough so there is a need for revision of the legislation related to environmental impact and the protection of natural areas, flora, and fauna. The promotion of environmental research must be accompanied by environmental education to foster a society which is more knowledgeable, has more control and influence over the decisions that deeply affect it. Indeed, nature conservation goes hand in hand with other social and economic challenges that require a more sustainable vision. Today’s problems with nature derive from the current economic model, which is environmentally unsustainable in that it does not take into account environmental impacts. Lastly, we propose a series of reasonable and feasible priority measures and actions related to each use made of the country’s natural resources, to the impacts they have had, and to their management, in the hope that these can contribute to improving the conservation and management of the environment and biodiversity and move towards sustainability.

Human biomonitoring (HBM) is a rapidly developing field that is emphasized as an important approach for the assessment of health risks. However, its value for health risk assessment (HRA) remains to be clarified. We performed a review of publications concerned with applications of HBM in the assessment of health risks. The selection of publications for this review was limited by the search engines used (only PubMed and Scopus) and a timeframe of the last five years. The review focused on the clarity of 10 HRA elements, which influence the quality of HRA. We show that the usage of HBM data in HRA is limited and unclear. Primarily, the key HRA elements are not consistently applied or followed when using HBM in such assessments, and secondly, there are inconsistencies regarding the understanding of fundamental risk analysis principles and good practices in risk analysis. Our recommendations are as follows: (i) potential usage of HBM data in HRA should not be non-critically overestimated but rather limited and aligned to a specific value for exposure assessment or for the interpretation of health damage; (ii) improvements to HRA approaches, using HBM information or not, are needed and should strictly follow theoretical foundations of risk analysis.

The Mediterranean Sea is a water body in which the concentration of mercury is much higher than in the other world seas and oceans. Most inputs of this metal originate from the general atmospheric fallout. However, in this semi-enclosed environment there are specific sources that should be identified to understand the causes of the high toxicity by this metal. A significant proportion of Mediterranean fish devoted to human consumption is above the mercury threshold set by the European Community as suitable for human consumption. The proportion is even much larger if the recommended World Health Organization threshold is considered. Oily fish is known for containing mercury concentrations above these thresholds. Lean fish has been investigated in much fewer cases. The present study is devoted to this second fish type that constitutes a substantial component of human diet. Thus, the study of mercury and methylmercury in fish from local fishermen marketed in diverse Mediterranean sites has provided information on the exposure of diverse populations to this metal and has afforded a description of the Mediterranean areas that have received highest mercury spills.1350 commercial seafood samples from the Western Mediterranean Sea were collected (Feb 2014-July 2019) in several sites such as Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa, Alacant (Spain), Marseille (France), Genoa, Alguer, Civitavecchia (Italy). Samples from Egypt and the Atlantic Ocean (Senegal, Mauritania coasts) were also taken for comparison. Fish species were selected considering the most consumed by the population.Comparison of the mercury concentrations in the specimens of the same fish species collected at different sites revealed where are the hot spots of introduction of the excess of this metal in comparison to the atmospheric fallout and allowed the identification of the source processes.The fish species were grouped in three trophic levels, those feeding on plankton (first), on small fish and crustaceans (second) and on fish and cephalopods (third).A considerable number of the analyzed fish species exceeded the maximum levels proposed by the European legislation, such as dusky grouper (100% of the examined specimens), common dentex (65%), conger (45%), common sole (38%), hake (26%) and angler (15%), among others. Representation of the Hg concentrations vs. weight of each specimen from the third trophic level showed a significant positive correlation, r = 0.78 (p < 0.01).The average THg intake due to fish consumption, 0.61 µg/g ww, involved Hg estimated weekly intakes of 5.7 µg/kg bw for children aged 7-12 years and 4.4 µg/kg bw for adults. These values were higher than the provisional tolerable weekly intakes for total Hg intake recommended by FAO/WHO, 4 µg/kg bw, 140% and 110%, respectively.