Trace Elements Concentrations and Human Health Risk Evaluation for Four Common Fish Species in Sinop Coasts (Black Sea)

Abstract

In the study, Trachurus trachurus, Engraulis encrasicolus, Merlangius merlangius euxinus, and Mullus barbatus from along the coast of Sinop were analysed for the content of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) and aluminium (Al) in the muscle. Zn, Pb and Cd concentrations were determined to be lightly higher than the acceptable rates in fish samples. The provisional tolerable daily and weekly intake of trace metals in our work were all under than the limits set by the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization, while for Cd, only M. barbatus was higher than FAO limits. E. encrasicolus and M. barbatus had the highest values for the collected total target danger section, but they did not posture a potential hazard within the diet of local residents. For carcinogenic and non carcinogenic risk assessment, the results were lower than the admissible rate of EPA. In the four fish species in the work, the Target cancer risk values of Ni were greater than 10-4, whereas the Target cancer risk values of Pb were smaller than 10-6. According to these results, it is thought that the Ni concentration in fish does pose a carcinogenic risk due to long-term and continuous consumption.

Keywords

• target hazard quotients
• fish
• metal pollution index
• target cancer risk
• permissible levels.