Assessment of Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury Level in Commonly Consumed Coastal Fishes from Bay of Bengal, India

Toxic heavy metal concentrations of Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg) and Arsenic (As) were determined in muscle tissue of six marine fish species collected from north eastern Bay of Bengal, India. The concentrations of arsenic, cadmium and mercury were in range of 0.02-2.34 µg g-1, 0.01-2.10 µg g-1 and 0.07-1.60 µg g-1 dry wt., respectively. Arsenic was the higher in average concentration followed by mercury and cadmium and their average concentrations were 0.66±0.09 µg g-1, 0.62±0.05 µg g-1 and 0.47±0.07 µg g-1 dry wt., respectively. The concentration of heavy metals was species specific and metal specific significantly varied. The estimated intake values of these metals through human consumption were calculated (µg kg-1 body wt. day-1 and weekly-1) and were compared with those of Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) per kg body weight as stipulated by  the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). The Estimated Tolerable daily intake TDI(Estimated) and Estimated Tolerable weekly intake TWI(Estimated) were lower than stipulated guidelines and therefore, were not considered to pose adverse effects to the humans. The Pearson product moment correlation was calculated and found that cadmium was positively correlated with mercury. Since there is a bioaccumulation of toxic heavy metals in fish tissues, therefore, a regular monitoring of heavy metals and other toxic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) dioxins, and furans is proposed for fishes from northern Bay of Bengal. Copyright © www.iiste.org Keywords: Heavy Metal, Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury, Coastal Fish, PTDI, PTWI, Bay of Bengal, Indi