Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in Various Tissues of Some Fish Species and Green Tiger Shrimp (Penaeus semisulcatus) from A°skenderun Bay, Turkey, and Risk Assessment for Human Health

Abstract

In this study, concentrations of heavy metals were determined by ICP-MS in the edible tissues of common sole (Solea solea Linnaeus, 1758), whiting (Merlangius merlangus Linnaeus, 1758), silver sillago (Sillago sihama Forsskal, 1775) and muscle-exoskeleton of green tiger shrimp (Penaeus semisulcatus De Haan, 1844), from the seas of Iskenderun Bay, Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey, in January-February, 2016. The lowest and highest mean concentrations of Mn, Cr, Cd, Ni, Hg, As, Pb, and Co in fish and shrimp' muscles were found, respectively, as follows: 0.166-0.382, 0.134-0.336, 0.005-0.008, 0.091-0.140, 0.026-0.228, 1.741-29.254, 0.087-0.110, and < 0.0005-0.027 mg kg(-1); in the skin and exoskeleton, the values were found, respectively, as 0.103-15.819, 0.301-0.778, 0.007-0.026, 0.115-0.513, 0.021-0.243, 1.548-17.930, 0.148-0.295, and < 0.0005-0.140 mg kg(-1). According to the results, mean concentrations of all metals in the muscles of fish, except for arsenic and chromium, were found to be below certain legal limit values, especially arsenic levels in shrimp that were found to be above all the legal limit values. Also, the hazard quotients (HQ) of individual heavy metals in fish and shrimp, except for As, revealed safe levels for human consumption. However, the HQ values of estimated inorganic As exceeded 1 in the muscles of shrimp (P. semisulcatus), which may constitute a risk to public health.