Heavy metals and metalloid distribution in different organs and health risk assessment for edible tissues of fish captured from Honghu Lake

Abstract

// Jingdong Zhang 1, 2 , Liyun Zhu 1, 2 , Fei Li 1, 2 , Chaoyang Liu 1, 2 , Zhaofei Yang 1, 2 , Zhenzhen Qiu 1, 2 and Minsi Xiao 1, 2 1 Research Center for Environment and Health, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China 2 School of Information and Safety Engineering, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China Correspondence to: Jingdong Zhang, email: jdzhang@zuel.edu.cn Fei Li, email: lifei@zuel.edu.cn Keywords: toxic metals, Honghu Lake, fish consumption, carcinogenic risk, estimated weekly intake Received: July 12, 2017      Accepted: September 23, 2017      Published: October 13, 2017 ABSTRACT Honghu Lake is the seventh largest freshwater lake in China, and fishery is one of the most important economic sources for local inhabitants. Toxic metal concentrations in muscle of all analyzed fish species captured from Honghu Lake were generally below China standards, except Cr in crucian carp. The average concentrations were decreased in the following order, Zn (14.65 mg/kg) > Cr (1.25 mg/kg) > Cu (0.5994 mg/kg) > Pb (0.0884 mg/kg) > Cd (0.0069 mg/kg) > As (0.0007 mg/kg). There was no significant health risk in consuming fish captured from Honghu Lake, based on the analysis results of target hazard quotient (THQ), carcinogenic risk (CR), and estimated weekly intake (EWI). Mixed edible fish tissues consuming brought higher carcinogenic risks than muscle consuming. Pb was regarded as the major contributor of potential non-carcinogenic risk, while As of the potential carcinogenic risk. THQ set the most stringent allowed values of the average consuming amount of fish muscle at 1,316 g/d, while CR set the value of mixed fish tissues at 525 g/d.