Heavy Metal Concentrations in Captured Marine Fishes of Peninsular Malaysia and Estimation of Target Hazard Quotient through Dietary Intake
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Abstract
Fish is a staple food in countries with direct access to the ocean, including Malaysia. However, in the Malaysian diet, fish also represents the main source of heavy metals, especially in commercial fishes. In this study we determined the concentrations of four heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead) in fish and estimated target hazard quotient (THQ) values for local consumers. The concentrations of heavy metals in marine fishes, (Decapterus spp., Nemipterus spp. and Rastrelliger spp.) from three fish landing jetties in West (West PM) and East Peninsular Malaysia (East PM) were determined. Heavy Metals in fish muscle samples were extracted using acid-microwave digestion and determined by inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). One-way ANOVA was performed to test for temporal and genus variation. Nemipterus spp. in East PM contained significantly higher (p<0.05) levels of arsenic (As, 1,030 to 3,140 ng·g-1 ww) and mercury (Hg, 113 to 790 ng·g-1 ww) than the other two genera, suggesting a greater ability to retain these two heavy metals. Nemipterus spp. in Tok Bali (TB), East PM alone showed consistently high levels of As and Hg in 2017 and 2018, which exceeded the concentration allowed by Malaysian Food Act 1983 (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2014. Based on these results, local consumers in TB were interviewed to gather information for the computation of THQ. The THQ values for As were greater than 1 in all studied fishes, whereas THQ for Hg only exceeded 1 in Nemipterus spp. Thus, THQ values indicate the potential health risk of consuming these types of fishes, particularly in TB.
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