Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in some commercially important fishes from a tropical river estuary suggests higher potential health risk in children than adults

A S Shafiuddin Ahmed; Sharmin Sultana; Ahasan Habib; Hadayet Ullah; Najiah Musa; M Belal Hossain; Md Mahfujur Rahman; Md Shafiqul Islam Sarker

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219336

Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in some commercially important fishes from a tropical river estuary suggests higher potential health risk in children than adults

PLoS One. 2019 Oct 17;14(10):e0219336. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219336. eCollection 2019.

Authors

A S Shafiuddin Ahmed¹, Sharmin Sultana², Ahasan Habib^{1

3}, Hadayet Ullah⁴, Najiah Musa³, M Belal Hossain¹, Md Mahfujur Rahman⁵, Md Shafiqul Islam Sarker⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Fisheries and Marine Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, Bangladesh.
² Department of Chemistry, National University, Gazipur, Bangladesh.
³ Faculty of Fisheries and Food Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia.
⁴ Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, SA, Australia.
⁵ Department of Statistics, Cumilla University, Cumilla, Bangladesh.
⁶ Forensic Science Laboratory, Rapid Action Battalions Headquarters, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract

The Karnaphuli River estuary, located in southeast coast of Bangladesh, is largely exposed to heavy metal contamination as it receives a huge amount of untreated industrial effluents from the Chottagram City. This study aimed to assess the concentrations of five heavy metals (As, Pb, Cd, Cr and Cu) and their bioaccumulation status in six commercially important fishes, and also to evaluate the potential human health risk for local consumers. The hierarchy of the measured concentration level (mg/kg) of the metals was as follows: Pb (13.88) > Cu (12.10) > As (4.89) > Cr (3.36) > Cd (0.39). The Fulton's condition factor denoted that fishes were in better 'condition' and most of the species were in positive allometric growth. The bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) of the contaminants observed in the species were in the following orders: Cu (1971.42) > As (1042.93) > Pb (913.66) > Cr (864.99) > Cd (252.03), and among the specimens, demersal fish, Apocryptes bato appeared to be the most bioaccumulative organism. Estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI) and carcinogenic risk (CR) assessed for potential human health risk implications suggest that the values were within the acceptable threshold for both adults and children. However, calculated CR values indicated that both age groups were not far from the risk, and HI values demonstrated that children were nearly 6 times more susceptible to non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health effects than adults.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Animals
Bangladesh
Bioaccumulation*
Child
Estuaries*
Fishes / metabolism*
Food Contamination / analysis*
Humans
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Metals, Heavy* / metabolism
Risk Assessment
Rivers
Seafood / analysis*
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / metabolism

Substances

Metals, Heavy
Water Pollutants, Chemical

Grants and funding

Sampling was performed by self-funded. Heavy metal analysis were conducted and funded by Rapid Action Battalion Headquarter, Bangladesh. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.