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Seafood consumption among Chinese coastal residents and health risk assessment of heavy metals in seafood

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Abstract

The aims of the present study were to obtain the seafood dietary patterns of coastal residents, to determine the concentrations of heavy metals, and to evaluate the possible health risks caused by seafood intake. The daily food intakes of 24 types of seafood were collected from 738 participants from Xiamen, a southern Chinese coastal city, using food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and dietary history method. One hundred and fifty-six samples of 14 types of highest intake seafood were collected from local markets for lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) determination. Health risks via seafood consumption were evaluated by calculating the target hazard quotient (THQ) and the total hazard index (HI) for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The results showed that the seafood daily intake of Xiamen residents was 61.5 (2.14, 115) g/day. The concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, and As in seafood were ND–0.45 mg/kg, ND–0.19 mg/kg, ND–0.80 mg/kg, ND–0.70 mg/kg, and 0.32–16.9 mg/kg, respectively. Concentrations of Cd and As in some samples were higher than national limitation standards. Consumption of 14 common types of seafood would not pose non-carcinogenic risk. However, some types, such as sparuslatus, oyster, and porphyra tenera, would form a carcinogenic risk. Regardless of a carcinogenic or non-carcinogenic risk, As posed the highest risk on humans. The observed HI value for non-carcinogenic effect of all metals in all seafood reached 0.69–2.20, and the metal orders of risk can be listed as As > Hg > Cr > Cd > Pb, reiterating the risk of As is a matter of concern in seafood from Xiamen markets.

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Acknowledgments

All the local people who candidly helped us in this survey deserve our sincere thanks. We also appreciate Prof. James Wai Kuo Shih and Dr. Chengyong He for English editing and Mr. Ziqiao Li for map-making. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 2011121006), Xiamen Science and Technology Project, China (Grant No. 3502Z20123003), and XMU Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Programs (Grant No. 2014Y0682).

Authors’ contributions

Ran Zhao and Chun Fan conceived and designed the experiments; Shuangshuang Yan, Wanting Xu, and Juan Wang performed heavy metals’ detection; Min Liu and Bi Wang analyzed the data; Dong Hu and Dongbei Guo contributed for sampling and sample preparation; all authors participated in questionnaire survey; and Ran Zhao wrote the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnotics, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, Fujian, People’s Republic of China

    Ran Zhao, Min Liu, Bi Wang, Dong Hu, Dongbei Guo, Wanting Xu & Chun Fan

  2. The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471003, Henan, People’s Republic of China

    Shuangshuang Yan

  3. Department of Preventive Medicine, Xiamen Medical School, Xiamen, 361008, Fujian, People’s Republic of China

    Juan Wang

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  1. Ran Zhao
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  2. Shuangshuang Yan
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ran Zhao or Chun Fan.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

Human participants were involved in the research, which was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Medical and Health Research Ethics Committee of School of Public Health, Xiamen University.

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All participants provided written informed consent.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Zhao, R., Yan, S., Liu, M. et al. Seafood consumption among Chinese coastal residents and health risk assessment of heavy metals in seafood. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 16834–16844 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6817-8

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