Assessment of Mercury Intake through Consumption of Yellowfin Seabream (Acanthopagrus latus) from Musa Estuary

Abstract

Fish constitute a major part of people diet in southern Iranian cities due to the neighborhood of those cities to the Persian Gulf. Previous studies have demonstrated that Musa Estuary is polluted by mercury. Yellow sea bream is well distributed in this water body. To evaluate mercury level in this economically important fish a total number of 50 Yellowfin seabream were caught from 5 different creeks in Musa estuary including Zangi, Jafari, Petroshimi, Ghazaleh and Majidieh. The muscle tissues of the fish were digested and their Hg content was analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer equipped with cold vapor system. Hg concentration in samples ranged from 0.44 to 1.46 mg/kg. In more than 88% of cases Hg concentration in fish exceeded the FAO/WHO permissible limit. The weekly mercury intake via fish consumption was estimated as 4.87 to 12.07 and 1.01 to 2.50 μg/kg body weight for children and adults respectively. The Estimated Weekly Intake (EWI) of mercury was higher than the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) for children. In addition, the calculated consumption limits of Yellowfin seabream for children and adults were 3 and 15 times per year respectively.