Overview
Rakib and colleagues bought ten widely eaten dried fish and shrimp species in markets of the Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong region of Bangladesh and measured twelve elements in the dried edible muscle by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). Results are on a dry-weight basis and are means of triplicate analyses per species. Arsenic and nickel were below the detection limit in every sample, and the authors estimated hazard quotients and cancer risk for adults and children.
Key numbers
- Mercury (dry weight): 26.5 ± 0.7 mg/kg (barramundi, Lates calcarifer) to 60.2 ± 1.0 mg/kg (Ilisha megaloptera); ten-species mean 37.84 mg/kg (Table 5).
- Lead: 0.52 ± 0.02 mg/kg (Harpodon neherius) and 0.28 ± 0.04 mg/kg (Trichiurus lepturus); the other eight species are printed as 0.001 mg/kg, below the stated 0.03 ppm detection limit (Table 5, Table 2).
- Arsenic ”< 0.41” and nickel ”< 0.24” mg/kg dw in all species (Table 5).
Methods (brief)
Washed edible muscle was ground, pressed into pellets and analysed by EDXRF with a cadmium-109 source; calibration used IAEA-350 tuna and accuracy was checked with DORM-2 dogfish muscle (recoveries 86.7 to 109.2%, Table 1). Detection limits are listed in Table 2.
Evidence Fitness
Ten species, three samples each, from one coastal region; no collection dates. EDXRF is a screening technique; the very high mercury values were not confirmed by a mercury-specific method, and the lead values printed below the detection limit are flagged in the extraction. The paper describes sun-dried fish and does not say the fish were salted, so for the salted-fish page this is a proxy for salted-fish and that page is not linked here.