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Heavy Metals in Common Fishes Consumed in Dhaka, a Megacity of Asia: A Probabilistic Carcinogenic and Non-Carcinogenic Health Hazard

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Abstract

Heavy metal contamination of fish is a serious public health concern worldwide, including in Bangladesh. In this study, six commonly consumed fish species namely Hilsha (Tenualosa ilisha), Kachki (Corica soborna), Punti (Puntitus ticto), Taki (Channa punctatus), Meni (Nandus nandus), and Tengra (Mystus tengara) were analyzed for arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), and nickel (Ni), by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The fish samples were collected from wholesale markets in Dhaka city, the main business hub of Bangladesh where the fishes converged from countrywide and are redistributed to the whole city. The metal concentration varied among the studied fish species. Hilsha, the national fish of Bangladesh, contained the highest As among the other fishes of this study, whereas Zn, Cd, Cu, Mn, and Ni were the highest in Kachki, and Pb and Cr were the highest in Tengra. The probable source of metal accumulation in the fish species may be the river or marine water that can be contaminated by industrial waste, pesticide, and/or fertilizer use in agriculture and/or commercial fish feeds. All analyzed fish species showed serious heavy metal pollution, having high average pollution load index (APLI) values (> 1). The estimated daily intake (EDI) values for the metals were lower than the maximum tolerable daily intake (MTDI). The hazard index (HI) for all the fish species was above 1 for adults, showing non-carcinogenic health risks. The target carcinogenic risk (TCR) values were below the acceptable limit (10−4) for most of the metals, indicating safe for consumption with respect to the risk of cancer.

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Data Availability

The data underlying of this research will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of Environmental Laboratory, Yokohama National University, Japan, for providing laboratory facilities for the analysis of metals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh

    Nazma Shaheen, Ishrat Nourin Khan & Nafis Md. Irfan

  2. Department of Food Technology and Nutrition Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, 3814, Bangladesh

    Marjia Sultana & Towhid Hasan

  3. Department of Oceanography, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh

    Md. Kawser Ahmed

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  1. Nazma Shaheen
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Contributions

N.S.: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, resources, supervision, writing—review and editing. M.S.: methodology, formal analysis, software, writing—original draft. T.H.: methodology, formal analysis, software, writing—original draft. I.N.K.: visualization, data curation, writing—original draft. N.M.I.: visualization, data curation, writing—original draft. M.K.A.: investigation, resources, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Nazma Shaheen.

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Shaheen, N., Sultana, M., Hasan, T. et al. Heavy Metals in Common Fishes Consumed in Dhaka, a Megacity of Asia: A Probabilistic Carcinogenic and Non-Carcinogenic Health Hazard. Biol Trace Elem Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-024-04140-5

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