Concentration of heavy metals in seafood (fishes, shrimp, lobster and crabs) and human health assessment in Saint Martin Island, Bangladesh

Overview

Baki and colleagues measured chromium (Cr), Mn, Cu, Zn, arsenic, cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and Fe in fish and crustaceans from Saint Martin’s Island, Bangladesh. The sampled seafood included eight fish species plus shrimp, lobster, and crab species, with crustacean muscle and shell/carapace fractions analyzed separately. The occurrence tables report concentrations on a mg/kg ww basis; the text describes the arsenic measurement as inorganic arsenic (As) and reports mercury as total/unspecified Hg, not methylmercury.

Key numbers

Table 2 summarizes ranges of metal concentrations in fish and crustaceans from Saint Martin’s Island in mg/kg ww:

The text reports fish-only ranges as Cr 1.87-0.19, Mn 0.74-0.59, Cu 2.23-0.30, Zn 12.10-3.34, Cd 14.09-1.53, Pb 8.92-0.12, Hg 0.13-0.07, and Fe 165.2-1.19 mg/kg ww, and states the fish-metal hierarchy as Fe > Cd > Zn > Pb > Cu > Cr > Mn > Hg.

Table 1 and the results text identify selected highest or notable fish means: Fe 165.20 +- 29.91 mg/kg ww in P. annularis and Fe 1.189 +- 0.275 mg/kg ww in L. fasciatus; Zn 12.103 +- 0.169 mg/kg ww in H. nigresceus and Zn 3.3382 +- 0.013 mg/kg ww in P. cuneatus; Cd values in H. nigresceus, R. kanagurta, and S. rubrum were reported above the acceptable fish values; Pb in R. kanagurta, H. nigresceus, and S. rubrum was reported above the listed fish guidance values.

For arsenic, the text states that inorganic As concentrations in fish were below the AAS detection limit of 0.08; Table 2 reports crustacean As ranges of shrimp 0.28, lobster -, and crabs 0.11-0.18 mg/kg ww. The paper’s mercury values are Hg only; no methylmercury speciation is reported.

Methods (brief)

Seafood samples were collected from different points of Saint Martin’s Island and the local market, transported to Jagannath University, rinsed, homogenized, and freeze-dried for 48 h. A 1.0 g pasted sample was microwave-digested with 6 ml HNO3 using a MARS-5 system; the final sample solution volume was 10 ml. Graphite furnace AAS measured Pb, Cd, and Cr; flame AAS measured Cu, nickel (Ni), Zn, Mn, and Fe; cold vapor AAS measured Hg; and hydride generation AAS measured As. Quality control used NIST oyster tissue and NRCC TORT-2 materials, analytical blanks, duplicate/triplicate samples, and certified reference materials, with recovery within 10% of certified values.

Implications

This source provides Bangladesh seafood occurrence evidence for fish, shrimp, lobster, and crab matrices, with wet-weight concentration ranges suitable for seafood and shellfish routing. Species-level findings should be handled as product-form occurrence and not as brand data. Arsenic should be used only as the source-described inorganic As measurement, and Hg should remain total/unspecified Hg unless a later source provides methylmercury speciation.

Update history

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