Trace metals contamination potential and health risk assessment of commonly consumed fish of Perak River, Malaysia.

Mohammed Abdus Salam,Tutun Das Aka,Md Abdul Khaleque,Mithun Rani Nath,Sadia Afrin Siddiqua,Rabiatul Adawiyah M Mohamad Zain,Mohamad Faiz Mohd Amin,Shujit Chandra Paul,Wan Rashidah Kadir,Rozita Binti Ahamad,Muhammad Anwar Iqbal,Aweng Eh Rak,Snahasish Bhowmik,Yi Hu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0241320

Abstract

The rapid growth of industrial and agricultural activities in Malaysia are leading to the impairment of most of the rivers in recent years through realising various trace metals. This leads to toxicity, particularly when the toxic has entered the food chain. Perak River is one of the most dynamic rivers for the Malaysian population. Therefore, in consideration of the safety issue, this study was conducted to assess the concentration of such metals (Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Pb) in the muscles of most widely consumed fish species (Barbonymus schwanenfeldii, Puntius bulum, Puntius daruphani, Hexanematichthys sagor, Channa striatus, Mystacoleucus marginatus, and Devario regina) from different locations of Perak River, Malaysia by employing inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Among the trace metals, Fe and Cd were found to be the highest (29.33–148.01 μg/g) and lowest (0.16–0.49 μg/g) concentration in all of the studied species, respectively. Although the estimated daily intakes (μg/kg/day) of Cd (0.65–0.85), Fe (79.27–352.00) and Pb (0.95–12.17) were higher than their reference, the total target hazard quotients values suggested that the local residents would not experience any adverse health effects from its consumption. In contrast, the target cancer risk value suggested that all fish species posed a potential cancer risk due to Cd and cumulative cancer risk values, strongly implying that continuous consumption of studied fish species would cause cancer development to its consumers.

Highlights

Trace metal, originating from various natural and anthropogenic activities around the world, is considered as one of the main pollutants for aquatic environments [1, 2]
The physical conditions of the fish species were considered because the trace metal accumulation depends on age, body weight, and feeding habits [44, 45]
The study revealed that the concentration of iron was higher than any other trace metals in fish species of the Perak river

Summary

Introduction

Trace metal, originating from various natural and anthropogenic activities around the world, is considered as one of the main pollutants for aquatic environments [1, 2]. Some essential trace metals like Fe, Cu, Zn play important roles in body functions, most of the nonessential trace metals, such as Cr, Pb, Hg, and Cd, are usually considered as toxic due to their harmful effects after entering human biological systems [3]. These trace metals usually accumulate in the human body through the consumption of aquatic animals, mostly fish and shellfish, which act as an intermediate sink to such trace metals [4]. The average Malaysian consumes approximately 57 kg of seafood per year [7, 8]

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Conclusion