Abstract
This study investigated the presence of total mercury (Hg) and organic mercury levels in the muscle of 19 common fresh water fish species captured from river Ganges, West Bengal, India. The total mercury level found in our study may not cause any toxic effect, but the methyl mercury (MeHg) level in some freshwater fish species was surprisingly very high and toxically unacceptable. The results of mercury analysis in various specimens indicated that some fish muscles tended to accumulate high levels of Hg, and approximately 50–84% of Hg was organic mercury. A strong positive correlation between mercury levels in muscle with food habit and fish length (age) was found. Wallago attu possessed the highest amount of organic mercury in their muscle tissues, and it was 0.93 ± 0.61 μg Hg/g of wet weight. Whereas in small-sized fishes Eutropiichthys murius, Puntius sarana, Cirrhinus mrigala, Mystus vittatus or Mystus gulio, and Tilapia mossambicus, it was below the detection limit. Contamination in Catla catla (0.32 ± 0.11), Anguilla bengalensis bengalensis (0.26 ± 0.07 μg Hg/g), Chitala chitala (0.25 ± 0.18), Rita rita (0.34 ± 0.14), and Ompok pabda (0.26 ± 0.04) was also above the 0.25 μg Hg/g of wet weight, the limit set by the PFA for the maximum level for consumption of fish exposed to MeHg. Though in Labeo rohita (0.12 ± 0.03), Mastacembelus armatus (0.17 ± 0.02), Pangasius pangasius (0.12 ± 0.16), Bagarius bagarius (0.12 ± 0.01), and Clupisoma garua (0.1 ± 0.01), concentration was below the recommended level, in Lates calcarifer (0.23 ± 0.0) and Mystus aor (0.23 ± 0.1), it was threatening. Interestingly, a low concentration of Hg was found in post-monsoon samples.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agarwal, R., Kumar, R., & Behari, J. R. (2007). Mercury and lead content in fish species from the River Gomti, Lucknow, India, as biomarkers of contamination. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 78, 118–122.
Altindag, A., & Yigit, S. (2005). Assessment of heavy metal concentrations in the food web of lake Beysehir, Turkey. Chemosphere, 60, 552–556.
ATSDR. (2003). Mercury. Agency for toxic substances and disease registry. GA: US. Department of health and human services, public health services, Atlanta. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp46-c5.pdf. Accessed 15 Nov 2010.
Ben-Ozer, E. Y., Rosenspire, A. J., McCabe, M. J., Worth, R. G., Kinzelskii, A. L., Warra, N. S., et al. (2000). Mercuric chloride damages cellular DNA by a non-apoptotic mechanism. Mutatation Research, 470, 19–27.
Bhattacharyya, S., Chaudhuri, P., Dutta, S., & Santra, S. C. (2010). Assessment of total mercury level in fish collected from East Calcutta wetlands and Titagarh sewage fed aquaculture in West Bengal, India. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 84, 618–622.
Campbell, L. M., Dixon, D. G., & Hecky, R. E. (2003). Review of mercury in Lake Victoria, East Africa: implications for human and ecosystem health. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part B, 6, 325–356.
Cohen, J. T., Bellinger, D. C., Connor, W. E., Kris-Etherton, P. M., Lawrence, R. S., Savitz, D. A., et al. (2005). A quantitative risk–benefit analysis of changes in population fish consumption. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 29, 325–334.
Clarkson, T. W. (2002). The three modern faces of mercury. Environmental Health Perspective, 110(suppl 1), 11–23.
Darnton-Hill, I., Hassan, N., Karim, R., & Duthie, M. R. (1988). Tables of nutrient composition of Bangladeshi foods. English version with particular emphasis on vitamin A content. Dhaka: Helen Keller International.
Eisler, R. (2006). Mercury hazards to living organisms. Mercury poisoning and treatment (pp. 37–43). Maryland: CRC Press. doi:10.1201/9781420008838.ch4.
Felton, J. S., Kahn, E., Salick, B., van Natta, F. C., & Whitehouse, M. W. (1972). Heavy metal poisoning: mercury and lead. Annals of Internal Medicine, 76, 779–792.
Glockling, F., Hosmane, N. S., Mahale, V. B., Swindall, J. J., Magos, L., & King, T. L. (1977). Mono, bis-, and tris-(trimethylsilyl)methyl derivatives of mercury. Journal of Chemical Research, 116, 1201–1256.
Holsbeek, L., Das, H. K., & Joiris, C. R. (1997). Mercury speciation and accumulation in Bangladesh freashwater and anadromous fish. Journal of the Science of the Total Environment, 198, 201–210.
Horwitz, W. (2000). Official methods of analysis of AOAC International, vols. 1 and 2 (17th ed.). Gaithersburg: AOAC International.
IRIS- Integrated Risk Information System. (1993). EPA. Washington, DC: Office of Research and Development.
Kris-Etherton, P. M., Harris, W. S., Appel, L. J., & for the Nutrition Committee. (2002). Fish consumption, fish oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and cardiovascular disease. Circulation, 106, 2747–2757.
Lebel, J., Mergler, D., Lucotte, M., Amorim, M., Dolbec, J., Miranda, D., et al. (1996). Evidence of early nervous system dysfunction in Amazonian populations exposed to low levels of methylmercury. Neurotoxicology, 7, 157–167.
Lewis, S. A., & Furness, R. W. (1993). The role of eggs in mercury excretion by quail Coturnix coturnix and the implications for monitoring mercury pollution by analysis of feathers. Ecotoxicology, 2, 55–64.
Maršálek, P., & Svobodová, Z. (2006). Rapid determination of methylmercury in fish tissues. Czech Journal of Food Science, 24, 138–142.
Moszczynski, P., Rutowski, J., Słowinski, S., & Bem, S. (2008). Immunological effects of occupational exposure to metallic mercury in the population of T-cells and NK-cells. Analyst, 123, 99–103.
Moszczynski, P., & Moszczynski, P. (1990). Current views on biotransformation and metabolism of mercury (in Polish). Postȩpy Higieny i Medycyny Doświadczalnej, 44, 153–180.
Park, J. S., Lee, J. S., Kim, G. B., Cha, J. S., Shin, S. K., Kang, H. G., et al. (2010). Mercury and methylmercury in freshwater fish and sediments in South Korea using newly adopted purge and trap GC-MS detection method. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 207, 391–401.
Petruccioli, L., & Turillazzi, P. (1991). Effects of methylmercury on acetyl cholinesterase and serum cholinesterase activity in monkeys, Macaca fascicularis. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 46, 769–773.
Rainbow, P. S. (1985). The biology of heavy metals in the sea. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 25, 195–211.
Rutowski, J., Moszczynski, P., Bem, S., & Szewczyk, A. (1998). Efficacy of urine determination of early renal damage markers for nephrotoxicity monitoring during occupational exposure to mercury vapor. Medycyna Pracy, 49, 129–135.
Sinha, R. K., Sinha, S. K., Kedia, D. K., Kumari, A., Rani, N., Sharma, G., et al. (2007). A holistic study on mercury pollution in the Ganga river system at Varanasi, India. Current Science, 92(9), 1223–1227.
Stohs, S. J., & Bagchi, D. (1995). Oxidative mechanisms in the toxicity of metal ions. Free Radical Biology & Medicine, 18, 321–336.
The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (1954). Together with prevention of adulteration rules, (1955) and notification and commodity index, India (amended, 2002). Lucknow: Eastern Book Company. Table No. R-57, 106–110.
U.S. EPA. (1992). National study of chemical residues in fish. WH-551, vol. I. Washington, DC: Office of Science and Technology.
US EPA. (2001). Water quality criterion for the protection of human health: methylmercury. Final report EPA-823-R-01-001. Washington, DC: US EPA. http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/methylmercury/document.html. Accessed 15 Aug 2003.
Virtanen, K. J., Rissanen, T. H., Voutilainen, S., & Tuomainen, T. P. (2007). Mercury as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Journal Nurture Biochemistry, 18, 75–85.
World Health Organization. (1990). Environmental health criteria 101: methylmercury. Geneva: World Health Organization. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/109078.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pal, M., Ghosh, S., Mukhopadhyay, M. et al. Methyl mercury in fish—a case study on various samples collected from Ganges river at West Bengal. Environ Monit Assess 184, 3407–3414 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2193-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2193-5