Ž . The Science of the Total Environment 261 2000 18 Evaluation of total mercury concentrations in fish consumed in the municipality of Itaituba, Tapajos River ´ Basin, Para, Brazil ´ Luciane do S.N. dos Santos a , Regina C.S. Muller a,  , ¨ Jorge E. de S. Sarkis b , Claudio N. Alves a , Edilson da S. Brabo c , ´ Elisabeth de O. Santos c , Maria Helena da S. Bentes a a Departamento de Quımica, Uni  ersidade Federal do Para-66000 Belem, PA, Brazil ´ ´ ´ b Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares Grupo de Caracterizac ¸ ao Isotopica USP-T . R, 400 CEP 05508-900, ´ ˜ ´ Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil ˜ c ( ) Laboratorio de Ecologia Humana e Meio Ambiente, Instituto E andro Chagas IEC -CEP 67000, Ananindeua, PA, Brazil ´ Received 27 September 1999; accepted 25 January 2000 Abstract The environmental exposure to mercury by riverine and Indian communities can occur through the ingestion of fish and products contaminated by mercury compounds. The present study aims to evaluate the total mercury concentration in the different fish species most consumed in the municipality of Itaituba, Tapajos river basin, where ´ there are intense gold-mining activities. These fish samples were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry by cold vapor technique, Automatic Mercury Analyzer HG-3500. The largest mercury concentrations were found in the carnivorous species ranging from 112.4 to 2250 gg, while the detritivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous species presented total mercury levels ranging from 3.2 to 309.8 gg, which is below the limit established by the World Health Organization. This paper also reports and identifies which species are more polluted and present a statistical relationship among concentration and weight of the carnivorous species studied in detail, Brachyplatystoma Ž .Ž 2 . Ž .Ž 2 . fla icans dourada r 0.691 and Pseudoplatystoma sp. surubim r 0.654 .  2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Mercury; Fish; Weight; Gold-mining; Itaituba; Tapajos River ´  Corresponding author. Fax: 55-91-211-1635. Ž . E-mail address: sarkis@ufpa.br R.C. Muller . ¨ 0048-969700$ - see front matter  2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S 0 0 4 8 - 9 6 9 7 00 00590-8