Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the contamination of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Cr in the tissues of commercially important fish Thunnus tonggol and to evaluate risks to human health associated with seafood consumption. The results from this study showed that the concentrations of all metals measured except Cr were relatively high in the liver compared to the muscle, gills and gonads. High concentrations of Cr were present in the kidneys. Fe had the highest concentration compared with other metals tested in all tissues of followed by Cu and Zn. The highest mean concentration (µg/g) of Fe 36.43±11.41, Mn 1.29±1.08, Cu 23.35±11.47, Zn 3.89±2.23, Ni 0.35±0.12, Pb 0.27±0.12, Cd 0.71±0.13 and Cr 0.35±0.20 were recorded in the edible muscle tissues of the fish. Overall, the findings from the present study revealed that all metals except Cu and Cd concentrations in the muscle tissues were lower than the maximum permissible limit as recommended by the international regulations. However, the estimated the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) of Cu is below the established PTWI. The data indicate that the examined fish were polluted with Cd. It was also found that levels of the metals in other tissues in some samples were higher than the recommended concentrations. However, consumers do not consume the liver, kidney, gills and gonads.
Highlights
Fish have an important place in the diet of Pakistan and are a good source of digestible protein vitamins, minerals and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)
The present study was conducted to investigate the contamination of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Cr in the tissues of commercially important fish Thunnus tonggol and to evaluate risks to human health associated with seafood consumption
It is important to determine the concentration of heavy metals in commercial fish in order to evaluate the possible risk of fish consumption to human health (Pérez Cid et al, 2001)
Summary
Fish have an important place in the diet of Pakistan and are a good source of digestible protein vitamins, minerals and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The term of heavy metals has been replaced in years by a classification scheme that considers their chemistry rather than relative density (Nieboer & Richardson, 1980). Separation of some essential and non-essential metal ions of importance as pollutants into class A (oxygen-seeking) including Ca, Mg, Mn, K, Sr, Na, class B (sulphur or nitrogen-seeking) including Zn, Pb, Fe, Cr, Co, Ni, As, V and borderline elements including Cd, Cu, Hg, Ag based on the classification scheme of Nieboer and Richardson (1980). It is important to determine the concentration of heavy metals in commercial fish in order to evaluate the possible risk of fish consumption to human health (Pérez Cid et al, 2001). Evidence from the literature strongly indicates heavy metal toxicity in the marine environment as a majors concern to human health. Industrial and agricultural activities were reported as the likely source of the accumulation of pollutants in the aquatic environment including the sea (Tarra-Wahlberg et al, 2001; Akif et al, 2002)
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