Human health risk–benefit assessment of metal(loid)s in commercial fish from the Northeastern

Overview

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Key numbers

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risks, conducted by considering the toxicologically significant inorganic fraction of arsenic (As) (10%), suggested
Canli et al., 2001; Çiftçi et al., 2021a, 2021b; Çoğun et al., high sensitivity suitable for dietary exposure evaluations.
employed: Five milliliters of 65% HNO₃ (nitric acid) was ent in the fish samples were comprehensively evaluated
combined with 1 mL of 37% HCl (hydrochloric acid). To using a series of established toxicological risk assessment
sure was restricted to a maximum of 40 bar, utilizing 80% day–1) in Türkiye, according to the WPR (2022).
Note: The EWI calculation facilitates comparison with a conversion factor of 10% was applied to estimate the
presented in detail within Table 1 (Çiftçi et al., 2021a; premise that Se offers protective effects against the toxic
Table 1. Essential parameters and corresponding numerical values employed in the target hazard quotient (THQ) calculations.
Pb = 0.0035; Ni = 0.02; Cd = 0.001; Cr = 0.003; Cu = 0.04; Fe = 0.7; Mn = 0.14; Zn = 0.3;
of Se and Hg, respectively. ± SD in Table 2. These findings, which reflect the inter-
A preliminary descriptive review of the data in Table 2
MPI (A. regius) exhibiting the largest mean total length (47.53
within the fish muscle tissue, the MPI was calculated. The mean total length (19.50 ± 1.29 cm), while the Lizardfish
MPI quantifies the total level of metal contamination by (S. lessepsianus) had the lowest mean weight (108.89 ±
determining the geometric mean of the concentrations of 9.35 g). Ecologically, the species are distributed across
The results are expressed as mean ± standard deviation Table 3 details the concentrations of the 13 analyzed
Table 2. Biometric and ecological characteristics of commercial fish species from the Northeastern Mediterranean.
centrations varied significantly, peaking in M. cephalus superscript letters in the same column of Table 4 indi-
(Table 3). However, no statistically significant differ- species. The highest Al intake was observed in Chub
centrations (p > 0.05). representing only 6.65% of its PTWI limit. Risk assess-
To determine if the observed variations in metal(loid) fraction (10%), resulting in EWI values significantly
was performed comparing the total mean concentrations in Lizardfish (S. lessepsianus) (8.25 × 10–4 mg kg–1 bw
across the 10 fish species. The ANOVA results followed week–1), which constitutes only 5.5% of its PTWI (0.015
metal(loid)s (Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Se, and resents a notable 57.4% of its PTWI, although still below
Table 3. Concentrations of analyzed metal(loid)s in muscle tissue of some Northeastern Mediterranean fish species (mg kg–1, wet weight).
The data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of triplicate measurements; ND: not detected; PL: permissible limit (mg kg−1); Arsenic (As) values represent total As concentrations; Different
Table 4. Estimated weekly intake (EWI) of metal(loid)s for adult consumers from muscle tissue of some Northeastern Mediterranean fish species (mg kg–1 bw week–1) compared with provisional
Note: Risk assessment calculations were performed assuming 10% of total As was inorganic As; PTWI: provisional tolerable weekly intake (mg kg–1 bw week–1); Different superscript letters (a–f) in the same
complete evaluation of public health risk requires fur- are presented in Table 6.
THQ and ∑THQ were calculated. Table 5 presents these minimum of 6.62x10–5 for S. sphyraena to a maximum of
tion (10%) was applied only to As, Ni naturally emerged
The cumulative risk ranged from a low of 0.133 (S. salpa) as the dominant contributor to the ∑CR in most species.
the inorganic fraction of arsenic As (10%), which is the Ni (3.30x 10–4) accounted for approximately 85% of the
It is well-established that using total As concentrations in approximately 59% of the cumulative risk for that specific
In this study, the application of the 10% inorganic frac- were observed to be negligible across all species, with
tion revealed that the individual THQ values for As their values often falling into the 10–6 to 10–9 range,
Table 5. Target hazard quotient (THQ) and total THQ (∑THQ) values for metal(loid)s in muscle tissue of various Northeastern Mediterranean fish species.
Note: Risk assessment calculations were performed assuming 10% of total As was inorganic As; Different superscript letters (a–f) in the same column indicate statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) according
icity across the sample set (Table 7).
The calculated Se:Hg molar ratios and the HBVSe, used ratios, which ranged from a low of 16.58 in H. dacty-
are presented in Table 7. all HBVSe values were positive, ranging from 1.01x10-3
Table 6. The calculated CR (carcinogenic risk) levels in muscle tissue of various Northeastern Mediterranean fish species.

Methods (brief)

from the Turkish Mediterranean Coast (Akçay et al., 2026; fied by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Ateş et al., 2015; Canli and Atli, 2003; Can et al., 2020; (ICP-MS), enabling multi-element determination with
both risk and benefit metrics is necessary to avoid overcon- Sample collection and processing
the annual fishing prohibition in Türkiye. A total of of the maximum power. Post-digestion, all samples were
systematically collected directly from local fishermen
area. The selected species—Meagre (A. regius), Bogue Elemental Analysis by ICP-MS
alus), Salema porgy (S. salpa), Lizardfish (S. lessep- Elmer NexION 350X ICP-MS unit. The instrument con-
Immediately upon collection, the samples were rinsed RF power was set to 1500 W, operating with a sample
contaminants. To maintain sample integrity, the spec-
imens were placed in insulated containers with dry ice Following the rigorous digestion process, the result-
samples were measured for total length and weight. The concentrations compatible with the ICP-MS detector,
placed in labeled polyethylene bags. All samples were data reliability and methodological precision, all sam-
Microwave Digestion Procedure reported elemental concentrations are expressed as
Sample preparation involved the acid decomposition of
wave digestion system. Approximately 250 mg (wet Risk–Benefit Assessment
ferred into dedicated digestion vessels. For the break- The potential human health implications arising from the
employed: Five milliliters of 65% HNO₃ (nitric acid) was ent in the fish samples were comprehensively evaluated
The programmed thermal regimen for digestion was exe-

Implications

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Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.

Commit	Date	Change	Description
b01ec52c	2026-08-04	major	2 sections added
d49e450f	2026-08-03	major	5 sections added; narrative text revised