HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT OF HEAVY METAL IN FISH TO THE POPULATION IN PETAGAS RIVER, SABAH

Abstract

The levels of heavy metal in marine environment and fish are very crucial for the assessment of heavy metal contamination which poses deleterious effect towards communities, especially those in Petagas River. Four randomly caught fish species (Sagor Catfish, Indo-Pacific Tarpon, Spotted Catfish and Nile Tilapia) from the river were dissected to obtain the fish flesh and prepared by following the Protocol of Perkin Elmer Pure Atomic Spectroscopy Standard (2001). The water sample and fish flesh sample were analysed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to identify the heavy metal concentration that affect the level of metal contaminants. The highest average of heavy metal concentration was found in Potassium (K) 10.04 µg/L, followed by Arsenic (As) 0.46 µg/L and Lead (Pb) 0.63 µg/L in the water sample. For fish sample the highest average concentration of heavy metal was found in Potassium (K) 14.28 µg/g, followed by Arsenic (As) 1.33 µg/g and Lead (Pb) 1.14 µg/g. The result obtained from ICP-MS was compared with the guidelines that have been set by the Malaysian Food Act (1983) and Regulation (1985), Malaysian Interim Water Quality Standard (NWQS) (2008), World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The present study demonstrates rather high heavy metal concentration in water for As and Pb that exceeded the permissible limit set by NWQS (2008) (0.05 mg/L) and (0.01 mg/L) and FAO/WHO (2017) (0.01 mg/L) and (0.01 mg/L) respectively. However, the K concentration did not exceed the permissible limit set by FAO/WHO (2017) (12.0 mg/L) and no data published for K in NWQS (2008). The present study for heavy metal concentration for As and K elements in fish sample were found to exceed the permissible limit set by MFAR (1983 & 1985) (1.0 µg/g) and (no limit published for K) and FAO/WHO (1984) (0.1 µg/g) and (1.6 – 2.0 µg/g) respectively. The Pb concentration in fish sample did not exceed the permissible limit set by MFAR (1983 & 1985) but it exceeded the permissible limit set by FAO/WHO (1984) (0.2 µg/g).