Journal of Life Sciences and Technologies Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013
Assessment of Mercury Intake through
Consumption of Yellowfin Seabream
(Acanthopagrus latus) from Musa Estuary
Alireza Safahieh
Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Science, Khorramshahr University of Marine Science and
Technology, Khorramshahr, Iran
Email: [email protected]
Sedigheh Babadi, Seyed Mohammad Bagher Nabavi, and Mohammad Taghi Ronagh
Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Science, Khorramshahr University of Marine Science and
Technology, Khorramshahr, Iran
[email protected]
Email: {m.nabavi, m.ronagh}@kmsu.ac.ir
Kamal Ghanemi
Department of Marine Chemistry, Faculty of Marine Science, University of Marine Science and Technology,
Khorramshahr, Iran
Email: [email protected]

Abstract—Fish constitute a major part of people diet in
southern Iranian cities due to the neighborhood of those
cities to the Persian Gulf. Previous studies have
demonstrated that Musa Estuary is polluted by mercury.
Yellow sea bream is well distributed in this water body. To
evaluate mercury level in this economically important fish a
total number of 50 Yellowfin seabream were caught from 5
different creeks in Musa estuary including Zangi, Jafari,
Petroshimi, Ghazaleh and Majidieh. The muscle tissues of
the fish were digested and their Hg content was analyzed
using atomic absorption spectrophotometer equipped with
cold vapor system. Hg concentration in samples ranged
from 0.44 to 1.46 mg/kg. In more than 88% of cases Hg
concentration in fish exceeded the FAO/WHO permissible
limit. The weekly mercury intake via fish consumption was
estimated as 4.87 to 12.07 and 1.01 to 2.50 µg/kg body
weight for children and adults respectively. The Estimated
Weekly Intake (EWI) of mercury was higher than the
Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) for children.
In addition, the calculated consumption limits of Yellowfin
seabream for children and adults were 3 and 15 times per
year respectively.
income by fishing. In addition many aquaculture farms
are established around this estuary and its tributaries.
Musa Estuary is subjected to mercury discharges from
chloralkali unit of the petrochemical companies in Bandar
Imam Khomeini. Contamination of this water body by
mercury is confirmed by several investigations [1], [2].
Mercury is severely hazardous to human health. This
pollutant could be biomagnified to high concentrations in
various trophic levels of aquatic food web [3]. In such
condition the highest mercury concentration usually
occurs in fish or other organisms at the top of the food
chain. Mercury bioaccumulation is more studied in fish,
because they reflect the level of metal contamination in
their environment [4]. Moreover the consumption of
contaminated seafood like fish is the main route for
mercury uptake by human being [5].
Yellowfin seabream is the most important species
caught all over the year which it is also cultured
successfully in Maricuture Research Station of Bandar
Imam because of its high economic value. Despite the
existence of reports on mercury contamination in Musa
Estuary, published data on the level of contamination in
fish like Yellowfin seabream or other fisheries species is
scarce. Moreover no guideline is available for the amount
of fish consumed by local people in this area. The
objectives of present study were to assess the mercury
levels in Yellowfin seabream in some creeks of Musa
Estuary and to evaluate the weekly intake of mercury via
fish consumption, and finally to estimate the consumption
limits for adults and children.
Index Terms—yellowfin seabream, mercury, weekly intake,
consumption limits, Musa Estuary
I.
INTRODUCTION
Kure Musa a 60 km long water way where is located in
southwest of Iran at north Persian Gulf. This aquatic
ecosystem is one of the important fishing areas in
Khoozestan province and many local people are
economically depend on this ecosystem for earning their
Manuscript received May 23, 2013; revised June 28, 2013.
©2013 Engineering and Technology Publishing
doi: 10.12720/jolst.1.2.142-146
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Journal of Life Sciences and Technologies Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013
II.
for a period of 3 h on hot block. Then the samples were
cooled to room temperature prior to the addition of 0.5 ml
of K2Cr2O7 [6]. Finally, samples were analyzed for their
total mercury by Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption
spectrophotometer (Unicam model 919).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A. Study Area and Sampling
This study was conducted at five creeks (Zangi, Jafari,
Petroshimi, Ghazaleh and Majidieh) in Musa Estuary
located in north-west of the Persian Gulf (Fig. 1).
C. Estimate Weekly Intake
The estimated weekly intake (EWI) values of Hg
(µg/kg body weight) were calculated (1) [7]:
EWI= (Cm×IR)/BW
(1)
where Cm is the mercury concentration in fish (mg/kg),
IR (intake rate) is the amount of fish consumed weekly
(147 g) and BW is the body weight (70 or 14.5 Kg for
adults or children respectively). The amount of IR was on
the basis of fish consumption per week in Iran [8], [9].
D. Assessment of Consumption Limits
Monthly allowable consumption rate (CRmm) was
calculated (2) [10]:
CRmm= (RfD×BW×30.44d/mo)/(Cm×IR)
Figure 1. Map showing of the study area
(2)
-4
where RfD is the reference dose (1×10 mg/kg/d), BW
represents the body weight (70 kg for adults or 14.5 Kg
for children), Cm is mercury concentration in fish (mg/kg)
and IR is the ingestion rate (0.227 kg/meal).
Sampling was performed during November 2009.
About 10 Yellowfin seabreams were collected from each
creek, using fishing hooks. All fish were placed in plastic
bags, stored on ice in an icebox, and transported to the
laboratory. Then the samples were kept frozen at -18oC
until analysis.
E. Data Analyses
Normal distribution of data was tested using ShapiroWilk normality test. One-way ANOVA followed by
Tukey’s post hoc multiple comparisons were used to
distinguish differences in mercury concentration among
various creeks.
B. Sample Digestion and Mercury Analyses
Before analysis, the fish were thawed at room
temperature. Then they were dissected and 3 g of muscle
tissue was taken from each fish. The samples were
transferred into digestion tubes and were digested with 5
ml of concentrated nitric acid and 0.45 mg of vanadium
pentoxide at room temperature for 1h, and then at 90 °C
III.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Biometric measurements of the fish (Total length and
total weight) were recorded in the laboratory (Table I).
TABLE I. BIOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FISH
Length
(cm)
Weight
(g)
Zangi
Jafari
Petroshimi
Ghazaleh
Majidieh
19.4±1.7
19.9±1.5
20.4±1.5
21.1±1.8
20.4±1.0
150.5±20.4
158.8±28.1
172.8±23.6
180.1±19.8
175.3±35.6
The mean mercury concentrations in muscle of fish
from Zangi, Jafari, Petroshimi, Ghazaleh and Majidieh
creeks were 0.48, 0.66, 0.80, 1.07 and 1.19 mg/Kg
respectively. Significant differences were observed
between mercury concentrations in fish from different
creeks (P < 0.05). The highest mercury concentrations
were recorded in Majidieh and the lowest mercury
concentrations were observed in Zangi creek (Fig. 2).
Zangi creek is located far from the petrochemical
complex which is supposed to be the main source of
mercury input into the sea. On the other hand, compared
to other stations, it is closer to the Persian Gulf. Therefore
it is obvious that the mentioned creek receives less
mercury than others.
©2013 Engineering and Technology Publishing
Figure 2. Mercury concentration in muscle of fish collected from creeks.
143
Journal of Life Sciences and Technologies Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013
Different letters indicate significant difference between
groups. Solid line showing maximum permitted level by
WHO.
Like the Persian Gulf, Musa Estuary has semidiurnal
tides. It is suggested that mercury released by chloralkali
units are transported upward to the Ghazaleh and
Majidieh creeks where are located at the end of Khure
Musa. Thus higher concentrations of mercury were found
in the mentioned creeks. It should be noticed that by
moving from Zangi to Majidieh creek the size of caught
fish increased markedly (Table I). Many studies have
indicated that generally larger fish contain more mercury
than smaller ones, this is right especially among members
of the same species [11], [12].
Mercury concentrations in yellowfin seabream
obtained in this study were compared with some other
studies performed in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea
(Table II).
The mean mercury concentration in this study (0.84
mg/kg) was markedly higher than others. Musa Estuary is
semi-enclose environment and it is surrounded by
polluting industries, which dischrge pollutants directly
into the water. In current study, Hg concentrations in 88%
of fish samples were higher than 0.5 mg/kg (Fig. 2), the
guideline level established by joint FAO/WHO Expert
Committee on Food Additives [13].
Saei-Dehkordi et al. (2010) found that among 15
different fish species from north Persian, only Thunus
tonggol, had mercury concentrations more than guideline
level [9]. Moreover, the Hg concentration in Yellowfin
seabream in the present study was considerably higher
than those of Saei-Dehkordi et al. (2010), although the
size of fish were markedly lower in the current research.
presence of chloralkali industries in Mahshahr (between
Abadan and Deylam) as a the main important reason for
mercury pollution. On the other hand some available
literatures indicated that mercury concentrations in milk
shark (Rhizoprionodon acutus) from southern parts of the
Persian Gulf, far from the location of the present work
were mainly below the WHO limit (Al-Reasi et al., 2007).
However some samples contained more mercury levels
which were above the WHO standard (0.67 and 0.76
mg/kg). Mercury concentrations in these two exceptions
were close to what found in yellowfin seabream in
Abadan.
It is important to have an overall picture of mercury
concentrations from a public health perspective. To
achieve this, we compared the results with the
categorization of Chvojka et al. (1990) that is described
in Table III [18]. According to this evaluation all of
sampled Yellowfin seabream fall in "very high" category.
TABLE III. CATEGORY OF MERCURY POLLUTION
Pollution categorization
very low
low
medium
high
very high
This study
It is very important to assess whether mercury poses a
significant risk for human health in this area or not. Based
on the available data, each Iranian people consume about
7.63kg fish annually while the demand for fish is
increasing every year [8]. The estimated weekly intake
(EWI) values indicated that adults are exposed to 1.012.50 µg/kg their body weight weekly, while children
receive 4.87-12.07 µg/kg of their body weight each week
(Fig. 3). The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on
Food Additives determined 5 µg/kg bodyweight as
provisional weekly intake (PTWI) of mercury [19]. As in
Fig. 3, the EWI of mercury was above the established
PTWI for children however, it was less than PTWI level
determined for adults.
Although in overall view it seems that the exposure to
mercury through fish consumption does not pose serious
health problem for adults however, it should not be
overlooked that the per capita consumption of fish in the
country is low. Usually there is a big difference between
the amounts of consumed fish by people who live in the
coastal zone with those who live in other parts of the
country. In addition some people like fishermen and their
families, those who work in fish markets and are directly
involve in fish delivering or selling consume more
seafood than others. These categories of people are
normally exposed to higher level of health risk arising
from more mercury intake due to the consumption of
higher amounts of fish or sea food. Fakour et al. (2010)
showed that the mercury concentrations in 76.4% of hair
samples of the women in Mahshahr port town (located in
the vicinity of Musa estuary) exceeded the EPArecommended level of 1 mg/kg. The main rout of Hg
exposure for the mentioned people was mercury intake
TABLE II. HG CONCENTRATIONS IN VARIOUS FISH SPECIES IN THE
PERSIAN GULF AND OMAN SEA
Fish
Acanthopagrus latus
15 species
5 species
6 species
Epinephlus arolatus
13 species
Studied area
Musa Estuary
(Persian Gulf)
Bandar-Abbas
(Persian Gulf)
6 ports in the
Persian Gulf
Mogham and
Lengeh ports
(Persian Gulf)
Saudi Arabia
(Persian Gulf)
Oman (Oman
sea)
Mercury
(mg/kg
w.w.)
0.48–1.19
(0.84)
This
research
0.12 -0.53
[9]
0.01–1.35
(0.14)
[14]
0.01–0.09
[15]
0.26 ±0.04
[16]
0.003–0.76
[17]
Reference
Agah et al. (2010) studied mercury accumulation in
commercial fishes landed in six Iranian ports along north
costs of the Persian Gulf including Abadan, Deylam,
Bushehr, Dayyer, Lengeh and Bandar-Abbas. They
showed that only 3% of the cases contained mercury
concentrations more than guideline level and the highest
Hg level was observed in Platycephalus sp. at Abadan
(0.68 mg/kg). They also indicated that the Hg
concentration in fish species was influenced by sampling
sites in an east-to-west direction and of course the
©2013 Engineering and Technology Publishing
Mercury concentrations (mg/kg)
0.05-0.15
0.15-0.25
0.25-0.35
0.35-0.45
<0.45
0.48-1.19
144
Journal of Life Sciences and Technologies Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013
through fish consumption [2]. Similarly Agah et al. (2010)
studied mercury concentration in scalp hairs of fishermen
who lived in some port towns along the Persian Gulf
including Mahshahr and Abadan. This study showed that
mercury concentrations in 90% of participants were
higher than 1 mg/kg and 40% of studied fishermen
complained about headache, muscle pain or dizziness
[14].
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
Figure 3. The estimated weekly intake (µg/kg body weight) of mercury
from A. latus and solid line showing PTWI by joint FAO/WHO Expert
Committee
[10]
Aquatic organisms may uptake and accumulate
pollutants in their bodies through different pathways.
Nevertheless the objective of investigations like the
present work is not to stop fish consumption by people.
Indeed the aims of this kind of research are to increase
public awareness concerning the risks rise from utilizing
commercial fish or other marine products and to
determine the safer consumption patterns. Although it is
different between sampling stations, the average
consumption limits of Yellowfin seabream for adults and
children were calculated as 15 and 3 meals per year
respectively. (Fig. 4). It is obvious that mercury
concentrations in muscle of yellowfin seabream could
increase more than 2 folds depends on the place of catch.
[11]
Zangi
Jafari
Petroshimi
Ghazaleh
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
Majidieh
Consumption Limits
(meals per month)
2.5
[16]
2
1.5
[17]
1
0.5
[18]
0
adults
children
[19]
Figure 4. Monthly consumption limits associated with human
consumption of A.latus from Musa estuary.
Sedigheh Babadi was born in Ahwaz (Iran)
in 1986. S. Babadi got her BSc from
Khorramshahr University of Marine Science
and Technology (Khorramshahr, Iran) in
Fisheries Engineering in July 2008; and her
MSc from Khorramshahr University of
Marine
Science
and
Technology
(Khorramshahr, Iran) in Marine biology
(pollution studies) in June 2011.
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Dr Alireza Safahieh was born in Isfahan (Iran) in
1962. He finished his BSc in biology in Isfahan
University (Iran) in November 1988, got his MSc
in marine fish biology in November 1996 from
Shahid Chamran University (Ahwaz, Iran); and
finished his PhD in University Putra Malaysia
(UPM) in ecotoxicology in November 2006. He is
working as assistant professor in Department of
Marine biology, faculty of Marine Science,
Khorramshahr University of Marine Science and Technology, Iran;
Author’s formal
photo
Dr Mohammad Taghi Ronagh was born in 1950
in Ahwaz, Iran He finished his PhD in marine
zoology in 2008. He is Assistant Professor in
Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine
Science, Khorramshahr University of Marine
Science and Technology.
©2013 Engineering and Technology Publishing
Dr Kamal Ghanemi was born in Iran in 1978.
Dr Ghanemi finished his BSc in chemistry in
2002; He got his MSc from Shahid Chamran
University (Ahwaz, Iran) in analytical chemistry
in (2004); and his PhD from Shahid Chamran
University (Ahwaz, Iran) in analytical chemistry
(2009). He is Assistant Professor in department
of marine chemistry, Faculty of marine Science,
Khorramshahr University of Marine Science and
Technology, Iran.
146