Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Present study covered a total of 40 popular and edible tropical marine green-lipped mussel Perna viridis populations which were collected from 20 geographical sites from the coastal waters of Peninsular Malaysia between 2002-2009. The mussels were determined for the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn in their edible soft tissues. In comparison with the maximum permissible limits (MPL) set by existing food safety guidelines, all metal concentrations found in all the mussel populations were lower than the prescribed MPLs. In terms of the heavy metal concentrations determined in the mussels and the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) prescribed by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and oral reference doses (RfD)s by the USEPA, all the studied metals (except for Pb) were unlikely to become the limiting factors for the consumption of mussels from all the populations investigated. The estimated daily intake (EDI) for average level mussel (ALM) and high level mussel (HLM) consumers of mussels were found to be lower than the RfD guidelines for Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni and Zn. Furthermore, the target hazard quotient (THQ) were found to be less than 1 for ALM consumers but higher than 1 for HLM consumers in some sites. Therefore, there were no potential human health risks to the ALM consumers of the marine mussels. However, for Pb’s THQ values, the Pb levels in some mussel populations could create a health risk problem.

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