Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Fisheries and Marine Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, Bangladesh
  • 2 Department of Chemistry, National University, Gazipur, Bangladesh
  • 3 Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, SA, Australia
  • 4 Faculty of Fisheries and Food Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Statistics, Cumilla University, Cumilla, Bangladesh
  • 6 Forensic Science Laboratory, Rapid Action Battalions Headquarters, Dhaka, Bangladesh
PLoS One, 2019;14(10):e0219336.
PMID: 31622361 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219336

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.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.