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Accumulation and health risk assessment of trace elements in Carassius auratus gibelio from subsidence pools in the Huainan coalfield in China

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Abstract

Microelement (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) concentrations were determined in the muscle, skin, gill, and liver tissues of Carassius auratus gibelio collected from subsidence pools at three different coal mines in the Huainan coalfield in China. The concentrations of elements in the water were within the allowable levels for raising fish. However, the higher levels of these metals in sediment may pose potential harm on fish. It was found that the concentrations of Cr, Ni, and Zn in all fish tissues were higher, while As, Cd, and Pb levels were relatively low. Microelement accumulation appeared to be more widespread in subsidence pools than that in natural water. Elements accumulated in fish tissues differently: the highest metal concentrations were generally found in the liver tissues of the fish analyzed, whereas the lowest were recorded in the muscles. The mean element concentrations in muscle tissue from C. auratus gibelio collected from subsidence pools (As, 0.16 mg/kg; Cd, 0.06 mg/kg; Cr, 6.21 mg/kg; Cu, 1.61 mg/kg; Ni, 3.88 mg/kg; Pb, 1.76 mg/kg; and Zn, 12.80 mg/kg dry weight) were far below the allowable limit of the hygienic standard in fish proposed by the Ministry of Health in China, suggesting that the fish were safe for human consumption. A health risk assessment also suggested there was no risk from the analyzed elements for inhabitants near the Huainan coalfield that consume fish.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2014CB238900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41672144). We acknowledge editors and reviewers for polishing the language of the paper and for in-depth discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Lanlan Lu, Guijian Liu, Jie Wang & Yuan Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710075, China

    Lanlan Lu & Guijian Liu

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  1. Lanlan Lu
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  2. Guijian Liu
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Correspondence to Guijian Liu.

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Lu, L., Liu, G., Wang, J. et al. Accumulation and health risk assessment of trace elements in Carassius auratus gibelio from subsidence pools in the Huainan coalfield in China. Environ Monit Assess 189, 479 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-6178-x

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