Heavy Metals Pollution on the Environment: A Case Study of Seafood and Humans

Abstract

Heavy metals pollution on the environment (seafood and humans) is a global problem. The concentrations of copper, cadmium and chromium in prawns, periwinkle and croaker fish from Aba area of Abia State were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric (AAS) techniques. The values of copper in periwinkle, prawns and croaker fish were 19.22±8.36mg/kg, 2.78± 3.34 mg/kg and 0.6± 0.07 mg/kg respectively whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) limit is 0.5mg/kg for copper in sea food and all samples examined had results which exceeded the WHO acceptable limits in seafood. Cadmium levels was high in croaker fish (1.10± 0.47)mg/kg compared to the WHO limit of 0.5−1.0 mg/kg of cadmium in food and the concentration of cadmium in prawns (0.74±0.5)mg/kg and periwinkle (0.34±0.28)mg/kg were within the WHO acceptable limit of cadmium. The values of chromium levels in periwinkle, prawns and croaker fish were 5.42±3.79 mg/kg, 26.16±2.85 mg/kg and 9.28±8.4 mg/kg respectively and these samples exceeded the WHO acceptable limits of 2.0mg/kg set for chromium in seafood. The results obtained from this study show that periwinkle and prawns bioaccumulated cadmium.