Determination of Nickel and Cadmium in Freshwater Fishes at Sungai Kuantan, Sungai Riau And Sungai Pinang

Abstract

Heavy metal exhibit toxic and persistent characteristics, can enter into the food chains and the ecosystem where they cause adverse impact on the biotic and abiotic components of ecosystem. Heavy metal pollution in Malaysia has become a major health concern for humans. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the level of cadmium (Cd) and nickel (Ni) in the muscle and gill of fishes collected from the Sungai Kuantan and Sungai Riau. Field sampling was conducted between September and December 2017. Five different species of fishes: Barbonymus gonionotus (Lampam Jawa), B. schwanenfeldii( Lampam Sungai), Hampala macrolepidota(Sebarau), Chitala chitala (Belida), and Hemibagrus nemurus(Baung) were digested by using acid digestion method and analysed with Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS). Concentration of Cd among species were in order of: H. macrolepidota >B.gonionotus> B. schwanenfeldii> C.chitala> H.nemurus, whereas Ni level in fishes were: C. chitala> H. macrolepidota> B. gonionotus> H. nemurus> B. schwanenfeldii. Among all the species, H. macrolepidota from Sungai Kuantan had the highest Cd in both muscle (0.1761±0.0062¬mg/kg) and gills (0.2938±0.0066mg/kg) whereas the highest Ni level in muscle was noted in C. chitala from Sungai Kuantan with (0.1473±0.0755 mg/kg) and in gills of B.gonionotus (0.4544±0.0470mg/kg) from the same river respectively. It was obtained that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) of Cd in muscle between species. Ni concentration in fishes was below the permissible limit stipulated by World Health Organizations WHO (1985) and Food and Agriculture Organizations (2012) but the concentration of Cd was recorded high. However, it was still below the World Health Organization (WHO) 1985 and Malaysian Food Act (MFA) 1983.