A Survey of Heavy Metal Concentration in Muscle of Banana Shrimp based on World Health Standards

Background and Heavy metals are the most important contaminants that enter the sea through rivers and shore zones and aggregate in the aquatic body through food chain. The purpose of this study was to compare the concentration of heavy metals (cadmium, copper, zinc, lead, and nickel) in the muscle tissue of Banana shrimp as the most abundant used species in Bandar Abbas, and also to compare these concentrations with global standards. In this study, shrimp samples were obtained in October 2014 from daily hunting of fishermen in Bandar Abbas. After separating the muscle tissues they were dried in oven at 65 °C for 24 hours. Following acid digestion, the measurement of heavy metals concentration was performed by atomic absorption machine. The samples’ mean concentration of zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, and nickel were 54.3, 18.3, 1.28, 1.02 and 0.2 ppm, respectively. The maximum and average concentrations were observed in zinc and the minimum level of contaminants was found in nickel. This study showed that the concentration of heavy metals including Zn,Cu and Pb in Banana shrimps were less than the amounts recommended by WHO, MAFF, USEPA, thereby not considered a health risk. However, the concentration of Ni and Cd were found to be almost harmful for human health, therefore, lower intake of Banana shrimp in this region is recommended.