Background and Objectives: Pollution of heavy metals in the environment is growing at an alarming rate and has become an important worldwide problem. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of selected metal concentrations (Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu) in the liver, gill, kidney and muscle of Liza auratus from Nowshahr the south Caspian Sea and to evaluate risks associated with its consumption.
Methods: A total of 42 samples were collected randomly from the Nowshahr in June 2016 using beach-seine and then transported to the laboratory. The determination of heavy metal concentrations in fish tissues was carried out using a Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.
Results: The results showed that metal accumulation in the liver tissues was higher than in the kidney, gill and muscle for all metals, and Zn concentration was higher than Cd, Pb and Cu in all the studied tissues. The maximum concentration of Pb; 2.94, Cd; 1.18, Cu; 15.46 and Zn; 141.54 mg/kg was observed in the liver, while the lowest level of metals were Pb; 1.10, Cd; 0.67, Cu; 9.54 and Zn; 33.85 mg/kg in the muscle of L. auratus. Potential health risk assessments based on estimated daily intake (EDI) values and target hazard quotient (THQ) indicated that the intakes of metals by consuming of fish muscle do not result in an appreciable hazard risk for the human body.
Conclusion: Heavy metal concentrations in the muscle of L. auratus were below the maximum permissible limit of WHO. However, the results indicated that the high concentrations of some heavy metals in liver, gill and kidney for L. auratus is alarming and do present an appreciable hazard risk on human health. Nevertheless, this requires further examination in future.