Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Intake of Common Fishes Available in the Brahmaputra River of Bangladesh

Abstract

Fifteen (15) fish species were collected from three (3) locations of the Brahmaputra River to determine heavy metals content in fish flesh, and to assess potential human health risk through consumption of those fishes. The contents of heavy metals in aqueous extract of different fish species were determined by an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, during the period from March to June, 2018. The concentrations of Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Cr in different fish species ranged from 41.70-376.62, 38.98-279.08, 3.19-47.91, 2.20-3.73, 0.19-1.20 and 0.59-2.40 mg kg-1, respectively. The study results revealed that the edible portion of fish species of the river contained reasonably higher amount of Mn, Zn, Pb, Cr and Cu compared to some other previous studies carried out elsewhere with freshwater fishes. Among the fish species, mola (Amblypharyngodon mola) showed the highest metal pollution index (20.12) followed by chela (Salmophasia bacaila) (17.72), chanda (Chanda nama) (16.78) and chingri (Macrobrachium sp.) (15.83), while baim (Macrognathus aculeatus) exhibited the lowest (6.79). The calculated daily metal intake for Pb, Mn and Cd for both male and female were higher than that of upper tolerable intake level, which indicates consumption of common fishes of this river, is not safe. Similarly, target hazard quotient (THQ) values for Mn surpassed 5.0 for both male and female, and the same value for Pb also surpassed 5.0 for female indicate that the exposed population are unsafe. The study results also revealed that all individual THQ values of other metals for both male and female surpassed 1, which means exposed population are in level of concern interval. In Bangladesh freshwater river fishes are more popular than farm fishes. However, the study results recommend to aware people about heavy metal contents before consuming fish species of a polluted river system.

Heavy Metal Bioaccumulation Pattern in Edible Tissues of Different Farmed Fishes of Mymensingh Area, Bangladesh and Health Risk Assessment

“…Such metallic contamination comprises significant portion of the problem as these metals known for their bioaccumulation and biomagnification, which cause various health hazards to human. Polluted fish could be a dangerous dietary source of certain toxic heavy metals to human [3,4].…”

“…Essential metals include Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn, whereas nonessential metals are Hg, Pb, Ni and Cd [6]. Evidently, fish form the link for the transfer of toxic heavy metals from water to humans [4]. A number of serious health problems can develop as a result of excessive uptake of different metals.…”

“…As a result, the increasing demand of food safety has accelerated research regarding the risk associated with food consumption contaminated by heavy metals [7]. Excess amounts of heavy metals from anthropogenic sources that enter into the ecosystem may lead to geo-accumulation [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and bio accumulation [4], which in turn pollute the environment and also affect the food chain and ultimately pose serious human health risks [15][16][17][18][19].…”

Bioaccumulation of Metals in Eels Taken From Lakes Köyceğiz (Turkey) and Võrtsjärv (Estonia) and Health Risk Assessments

“…MPI can be included in complex freshwater monitoring programs as it can produce some additional information about metal bioavailability, bio-concentration, and metal penetration into the environment. The MPI is a reliable and sensitive method for monitoring metal contamination in food samples (Zakir et al 2019). In this study, the MPI value in LV was found to be slightly higher than the MPI value in LK.…”

Characterization of River Sediments in Loja-Ecuador

“…But near Loja City, it is advisable to make a holistic environmental assessment to estimate the environment's health [35]. This research can also be used as an environmental baseline for future mining projects in the sector.…”