Risk assessment on mercury concentration in six edible mollusks from Bintan Island, Indonesia

Abstract

Mollusks are common fisheries product commercially traded in Bintan Island however the assessment of the mollusks for their contaminant content like mercury is limited. This study was aimed to measure total mercury concentration and to assess the risk exposed by the mercury inside the mollusks collected from Bintan Island. Six mollusks were collected from Tanjung Unggat, Bintan in May 2018. The samples were analyzed by measuring their body size and the analysis of mercury was carried out using mercury analyzer. The result revealed that the mercury concentration in all mollusks indicted no significant correlation to the body size except for L. lambis and P. erosa. It was a variation of mercury concentration among the mollusks and the concentration of mercury was below the national guideline. The computation of the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) was carried out to assess the potential risk of those mollusks consumption. The result indicated that all analyzed mollusks were safe to consume since the computed PTWI value was below the permissible recommendation of the JECFA for total mercury intake. Thus, this study revealed that the consumption of the mollusks from Bintan Island served minimum risk to mercury exposure to the human body.