Abstract
Increasing environmental metal concentrations are usually attributed to the impact of urbanisation. This study emphasises on the metal contamination in green mussel (Perna viridis) from the coastal urban area. The field survey was carried out to evaluate the concentration of metals, i.e., Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn in green mussel captured from Semarang coastal waters, Central Java, Indonesia. Green mussels are the important species that are consumed by the local people as a source of animal protein. Therefore, keeping the mussels away from a wide range of contaminants, including heavy metals, has become an essential factor for people’s health. The result of the study demonstrated that concentrations of Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn in soft tissues of P. viridis at all stations ranged from 0.013 to 0.042 mg/kg (average from 0.022±0.007 to 0.033±0.005 mg/kg) for Cd, 0.324–2.765 mg/kg (average from 0.406±0.059 to 2.268±0.293 mg/kg) for Pb, 0.621–2.760 mg/kg (average from 1.094±0.353 to 2.294±0.274 mg/kg) for Cu, and 7.886–31.115 mg/kg (average from 10.722±1.781 to 23.434±5.271 mg/kg) for Zn. Health risk analysis through the calculation of the HQ and HI index demonstrated that all the metal-contaminated green mussels had deleterious health risks to children living in the Semarang coastal areas. The HQ value <1 occurred in adults who consumed Cd-, Cu- and Zn-contaminated green mussels. A particular case occurred in Pb-contaminated green mussels, which showed the HQ values > 1 in the all over study sites threatening health risks to the children and adult inhabitants. The HI values > 1, which indicated that consumption of P. viridis at all study areas has a high health risk. Risk management efforts must be taken by reducing the rate of P. viridis consumption until the safe limit and decreasing metals concentration incorporated in green mussels with the depuration method as a reasonable way to protect people’s health from heavy metals toxicity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.