Seafood consumption among Chinese coastal residents and health risk assessment of heavy metals in seafood

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to obtain the seafood dietary patterns of coastal residents, to determine the concentrations of heavy metals, and to evaluate the possible health risks caused by seafood intake. The daily food intakes of 24 types of seafood were collected from 738 participants from Xiamen, a southern Chinese coastal city, using food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and dietary history method. One hundred and fifty-six samples of 14 types of highest intake seafood were collected from local markets for lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) determination. Health risks via seafood consumption were evaluated by calculating the target hazard quotient (THQ) and the total hazard index (HI) for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The results showed that the seafood daily intake of Xiamen residents was 61.5 (2.14, 115) g/day. The concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, and As in seafood were ND-0.45 mg/kg, ND-0.19 mg/kg, ND-0.80 mg/kg, ND-0.70 mg/kg, and 0.32-16.9 mg/kg, respectively. Concentrations of Cd and As in some samples were higher than national limitation standards. Consumption of 14 common types of seafood would not pose non-carcinogenic risk. However, some types, such as sparuslatus, oyster, and porphyra tenera, would form a carcinogenic risk. Regardless of a carcinogenic or non-carcinogenic risk, As posed the highest risk on humans. The observed HI value for non-carcinogenic effect of all metals in all seafood reached 0.69-2.20, and the metal orders of risk can be listed as As > Hg > Cr > Cd > Pb, reiterating the risk of As is a matter of concern in seafood from Xiamen markets.

Metals and arsenic in marine fish commercialized in the NE Brazil: Risk to human health

“…The Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) estimation methodology for human health risk assessment was initially proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the 1980s (USEPA 1989). The THQ is based on the calculation of metal concentrations in food, intake rates, and the reference oral dose, and has been used in studies evaluating the potential risk of exposure to contaminants in vegetables (Yañez et al 2018), vegetable oils (Zhu et al 2011), oysters (Zhao et al 2016), and fish (Yi et al 2011;Adel et al 2016;Avigliano et al 2016;Gu et al 2017). Because of the potential and/or real danger of consumption of fish with significant levels of toxic metals, many countries monitor the levels of these trace elements in fish locally consumed, to protect human health.…”

Clinical application of a multiplex genetic pathogen detection system remaps the aetiology of diarrhoeal infections in Shanghai

“…Among the polymicrobial infections, we found that EPEC and Vibrio presented the highest ratio (Additional file 6 : Table S3). One possible reason for this observation could be that the isolation rate of EPEC was the highest (24.6%), and Vibrio was the most frequently isolated pathogen from seawater and seafood, and the consumption of contaminated seafood appears to be one of the major causes of acute diarrhoea in Shanghai [ 49 ]. Finally, we noticed that the proportion of polymicrobial infections in the 20–39-year-old age group was significantly higher than that in the 40–59-year-old age group (Fig.…”

Spatial Variations and Potential Risks of Heavy Metals in Seawater, Sediments, and Living Organisms in Jiuzhen Bay, China

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