Author(s)

Azza Khaled^1*, Ahmed Abdel-Halim², Zeinab El-Sherif³, Laila A. Mohamed²

¹Marine Pollution Research Department, Environmental Division, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt.
²Marine Chemistry Department, Environmental Division, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt.
³Hydrobiology Department, Environmental Division, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt.

In an attempt to evaluate the environmental quality of Marsa-Matrouh city which covered the most famous beaches in Egypt, an environmental risk assessment was performed, including a screening level ecological risk assessment. The aim of this work was to determine which metals could possibly pose toxic adverse ecological effects to marine organisms and to determine whether hot spots exist or not. To fulfill the goals of study, surfacial sediment and water samples were collected from ten different locations covering Marsa-Matrouh city during four seasons (2010-2011). The average concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn were 2.381 ± 3.389, 9.307 ± 14.159, 68.969 ± 9.397, 2.642 ± 1.004, 16.712 ± 8.469, 31.168 ± 15.322 μg/l in water and 0.755 ± 0.240, 5.363 ± 1.581, 962.131 ± 975.084, 3.972 ± 2.180, 15.210 ± 4.434 and 24.608 ± 7.706 μg/g dry weight in sediment respectively. The concentrations of the investigated six metals in water were within the acceptable limits except for two stations (Cleopatra and El-Obayed) which exhibited higher values than the permissible level of Cd during autumn 2010. Metal pollution assessment for both water and sediment was studied. Heavy metal pollution index indicates that water is not critically polluted with respect to the investigated metals. For sediment samples, threshold effect concentrations (TEC HQ) were lower than 1 except for Cd which showed higher value than 1, indicating the possibility of occurrence of toxic adverse ecological effects to benthic organisms for Cd, while rare adverse ecological effects are expected to occur with respect to Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn.

Trace Metal, HQ, Human Health Risk, Marsa-Matrouh, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt

Khaled, A. , Abdel-Halim, A. , El-Sherif, Z. and Mohamed, L. (2017) Health Risk Assessment of Some Heavy Metals in Water and Sediment at Marsa-Matrouh, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt. Journal of Environmental Protection, 8, 74-97. doi: 10.4236/jep.2017.81007.