ABSTRACT
Fish consumption is one of the primary sources of protein in Malaysia. However, harmful substances, including heavy metals released from anthropogenic sources may accumulate in marine organisms through the food chain. Hence, human health risks may occur through the consumption of fish contaminated by heavy metals. This study was conducted to determine the concentrations of heavy metals and to assess health risks in edible tissues of 296 commonly consumed marine fish throughout Peninsular Malaysia. The marine fish samples were collected from selected major fish landing ports throughout Peninsular Malaysia. This paper focused on nine heavy metals concentrations namely selenium (Se), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), antimony (Sb), tin (Sn), chromium (Cr) and manganese (Mn) in 46 species of marine fish. The fish samples were digested using a microwave digestion system (Multiwave 3000, Anton Paar). Heavy metals concentrations were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) ELAN 9000 (Perkin Elmer, Sciex, Canada). The heavy metals concentrations in marine fish samples were found to be dominated by Zn followed by Sn, Se, Cu, Mn, Cr, Pb, Cd and Sb which ranged between 15.9612 mg/kg (Zn) and 0.0002 mg/kg (Sb) wet weight. Among the investigated fish species, Otolithoides biauritus demonstrated the lowest concentration for all heavy metal except for Pb. The estimated weekly intakes (EWI) for all samples in this study were below the established PTWI by JECFA of FAO/WHO. Risk assessment results showed that the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) values were lower than 1 in all fish species. The results indicate that exposure to the studied metals poses a low non-carcinogenic risk and considered safe for human consumption.