Abstract
Heavy metals and PAHs were measured in animal foodstuffs from Augusta-Melilli-Priolo area in order to evaluate the potential human health risk associated to their consumption. All heavy metals were detected in seafood products while most of them were <LOD in beef, pork and milks samples. Particularly, seafood products registered higher values of total arsenic (As), mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb) than other food categories, while beef and pork showed higher content of zinc (Zn). Cadmium (Cd) and Pb were below the tolerable limits reported by the European Union in foodstuffs (1) while mercury exceed the threshold value in seafood products. Among the PAHs, chrysene (Chr) was detected in all the terrestrial foodstuffs with higher concentrations found in raw milks. Small quantity of benz(a)anthracene (BaA) were also found in this food. The health risk for consumers was assessed for five age categories of consumers calculating the estimated weekly intake (EWI), the target hazard quotient (THQ) and the cancer risk (CR) for each contaminant. Moreover, the margin of exposure (MOE) was estimated for PAHs. The EWIHg related to seafood products intake exceeded the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) recommended by the European Food Safety Authority. The THQHg was >1 for baby, children and teenagers, indicating a non-carcinogenic risk for these age categories by seafood ingestion. The CRAs overcame 1*10−5 for almost age categories (except “baby”) and for elderly, by seafood and beef ingestions respectively. Moreover, the MOE for PAHs showed a certain cancer risk for “baby” related to cow milk ingestion.
Highlights
Industrial activities release into the environment different wastes containing significant amounts of pollutants, such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins (PCDDs) polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
In this study we evaluate heavy metals and PAHs concentrations in seafood products, meats and milks samples collected from the Site of National Interest (SNI) area, in order to assess the human health risk for resident population due to the consumption of local animal foodstuffs
Focusing on individual marine organisms, Hg concentrations exceed the threshold limits imposed by European Community [1] for seafood in almost the fish species (P. erythrinus: 1.13 μg/g; D. annularis: 3.51 μg/g; M. barbatus: 1.91 μg/g; T. lucerna: 0.66 μg/g and S. sphyraena: 0.78 μg/g) and in the crustacean P. kerathurus (0.59 μg/g), while Pb content was above the threshold limit for fish [0.3 μg/g; [1]] only in the specie P. acarne (0.57 μg/g)
Summary
Industrial activities release into the environment different wastes (gases, particles, sludge, liquid effluent) containing significant amounts of pollutants, such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins (PCDDs) polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Some of them are highly toxic and persistent in the environment, representing a serious threat to human and ecosystem health [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Heavy metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg) lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) occur in the environment both by natural (i.e., soil erosion and weathering of the earth’s crust) and anthropogenic sources (i.e., mining, industrial effluents, urban runoff, sewage discharge, insect or disease control agents applied to crops, and many others). Due to their chemical properties, they can escape cellular control mechanisms, bind to native protein, DNA and nuclear proteins, inhibiting their biological activity resulting in toxicity, oxidative deterioration of biological macromolecules [14,15,16]
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