*Article* **Mercury Exposure and Associations with Hyperlipidemia and Elevated Liver Enzymes:ANationwideCross-SectionalSurvey**

**Seungho Lee 1, Sung-Ran Cho 2, Inchul Jeong 1, Jae Bum Park 1, Mi-Yeon Shin 3, Sungkyoon Kim 3,\*,**† **and Jin Hee Kim 4,\*,**†



Received: 3 June 2020; Accepted: 29 June 2020; Published: 1 July 2020

**Abstract:** Mercury (Hg) has obesogenic properties. However, the associated health outcomes of population-level mercury exposure were unclear. This study investigated the relationships between blood mercury levels and obesity-related outcomes such as hyperlipidemia and elevated liver enzymes. Using the second cycle of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (*n* = 6454), we performed logistic regression to examine the e ffects of Hg on hyperlipidemia and elevated liver enzymes. The blood mercury levels were significantly higher in the hyperlipidemia group (*n* = 3699, male: 4.03 μg/L, female: 2.83 μg/L) compared to the non-hyperlipidemia group (*n* = 2755, male: 3.48 μg/L, female: 2.69 μg/L), and high blood mercury levels were associated with an 11% higher risk of hyperlipidemia. The elevated liver enzymes group had higher mean blood mercury levels (*n* = 1189, male: 4.38 μg/L, female: 3.25 μg/L) than the normal group (*n* = 5265, male: 3.64 μg/L, female: 2.70 μg/L), and elevated blood mercury was associated with a 35% higher risk of elevated liver enzymes. Moreover, the e ffect was constant after adjusting for personal medications. These results indicate that mercury exposure is significantly associated with hyperlipidemia and elevated liver enzymes.

**Keywords:** mercury; obesogen; lipid profiles; hyperlipidemia; elevated liver enzymes
