Health risk assessment of Burmese related to consumption of heavy metals contaminated fish from local market in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Heavy metals contamination in human through the ingestion of contaminated fish may lead to serious health problems. This study was a cross sectional study conducted during February and March 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand. The objectives of this study were 1) to find the concentration of heavy metals contaminated in fish from local market in Thailand 2) to find the cancer risk and non-cancer risk of heavy metals from fish consumption. Face-to-face interview and online questionnaire were used to collect the personal information of 400 Burmese living in Bangkok. As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg were analyzed by ICP-MS from four fish species: nile tilapia, catfish, mackerel, seabass. The concentration of heavy metals in nile Tilapia found average As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg were 0.092 ±0.0075 mg/kg, 0.008 mg/kg, 0.015 ± 0.008 mg/kg, 0.004 mg/kg, and 0.028 ± 0.007 mg/kg, respectively. For catfish, found average As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg were 0.012 ± 0.0035 mg/kg, 0.008 mg/kg, 0.011 ± 0.008 mg/kg, 0.004 mg/kg, and 0.029 ± 0.011 mg/kg, respectively. The average As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg in Mackerel were 0.449 ± 0.052 mg/kg, 0.03 ± 0.009 mg/kg, 0.0153 ± 0.0081 mg/kg, 0.027 ± 0.0066 mg/kg, and 0.02, respectively. For seabass, found average As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg were 0.283 ± 0.1624 mg/kg, 0.008 mg/kg, 0.006 mg/kg, 0.020 mg/kg, 0.022 ± 0.0021 mg/kg, respectively. All concentrations were not exceeded Thai and International Standards. For non-cancer risk result, the Hazard Index (HI) through the consumption of nile tilapia, catfish, mackerel and seabass were 0.552 + 0.393, 0.115 + 0.086, 1.218 ± 0.588, and 1.138 ± 0.602 respectively. Both mackerel and seabass were exceeded the acceptable risk level. For the total cancer risk (TCR), nile Tilapia was 8.49 x 10-5 + 8.17 x 10-5, catfish was 1.57 x 10-5 + 1.53 x 10-5, Mackerel was 1.61 x 10-4 + 1.17 x 10-4, and seabass was 1.39 x 10-4 + 1.15 x 10-4. The TCR from all fish species were above the acceptable level; hence, there may have cancer risk through the long-term consumption of all targeted fish species from this research. Furthermore, for people who consume all four targeted fish species, the mean HI and TCR were 2.795 + 1.108 and 3.58 x 10-4 + 2.22 x 10-4. According to the risk results, this study suggests that mackerel and seabass should be concerned amount and frequency of consumption due to they may cause chronic and acute effects from long term consumption.