Assessment of health risk on metal accumulation from consumption of Corbicula fluminea

Abstract

Indicators of environmental quality encompass a number of environmental aspects such as water, soil and biotic life. As an example, the fundamental human needs is access to clean food sources. Nowadays, metals pollution has become a great concern as it could lead to a bad effect on a human's health. In this study, heavy metals concentration in Corbicula fluminea is a clam that is frequently consumed by the local people in the state of Kelantan. In this study, metal concentration in Corbicula fluminea were determined and the possible human health effects were evaluated by using the Target Hazard Quotients (THQ. Five heavy metals were determined which are cadmium, arsenic, lead, copper, and zinc. The samples were collected from Tumpat, Kelantan whereby the study area was surrounded by agricultural activities and housing settlement. The sample went through a wet digestion process before being analysed by the Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The limit of heavy metals concentrations in aquatic species for consumption has been set for human health by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Accumulation of heavy metals in the species were found to be high for cadmium. Furthermore, in risk and safety assessment, both arsenic and lead had very low level of metal concentration in the species. Based on the result obtained, cadmium exceeded the permissible limit set by the FAO, whereas, the calculated THQ was below one, which indicated means there was a least chance of carcinogenic effects to human's health.