RESUMEN
Pollution with copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), and nickel (Ni) heavy metals of the surface sediments collected from three semi-closed East Mediterranean Gulfs, namely Kavala, Strymonikos, and Ierissos Gulfs, North Aegean Sea, Greece, was investigated to evaluate potential benthic ecological risks. The mean concentrations of the studied metals decrease according to the order: Zn > Pb > Cr > Ni > Cu (176.50, 166.23, 127.41, 43.12, and 33.64 mg kg-1 dry weight). Quality indicators and possible ecological risks for metals in surface sediments were evaluated at 60 sampling sites of these three gulfs using the contamination factor (CF), the contamination degree (CD), the pollution load index (PLI), the geoaccumulation index (Igeo), the potential risk factor (PRFi), and the potential ecological risk index (PERI). Based on Igeo, the Ierissos Gulf sampling sites IER 2, 3, 7, and 9 exhibit moderate Pb pollution, whereas the sampling sites IER 6 and 8 show moderate to strong and strong Pb pollution, respectively. Based on the PRFi and PERI, the studied heavy metals did not pose any significant environmental risks for most of the investigated sites except IER 6 and 8 sampling sites, which may pose considerable environmental risk for Pb. To evaluate potential sources for each metal, multivariate techniques including hierarchical cluster analysis and ANOVA were used.
RESUMEN
Aegean Sea albacore (T. alalunga), fresh or processed, is marketed locally in Greece or exported, mainly to Japan, Italy, Spain, and France. To provide information for consumers and biomonitoring programs and assess the potential human health risks, concentrations of mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) were determined in albacore edible muscle samples from two fishing grounds of the Aegean Sea, Greece via graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS). Of the 82 individuals, 28 contained Cd and three contained Pb above the permissible limits set by the European Union (0.1 mg kg-1 wet wt and 0.3 mg kg-1 wet wt, respectively). None of the samples contained mercury above the limit (1.0 mg kg-1 wet wt). Potential health risks to human via dietary intake of albacore were estimated by the total target hazard quotients (TTHQs), which indicated that the consumers could acquire health problems due to consumption of Aegean Sea albacore. Thus consequently, concentrations of toxic heavy metals in albacore, especially mercury, must be monitored regularly and comprehensively with respect to consumer health.