Dietary exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from commercially important seafood of the Arabian Gulf

Author: Husam Alomirah ^1*, Sameer Al-Zenki ¹, Adnan Husain ¹, Nisar Ahmed ², Amal Al-Rashdan ², Bondi Gevao ³ and Wajih Sawaya ¹

Received 29 September 2008, accepted 12 December 2008.

Abstract

In order to assess the dietary intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by Kuwaiti population, concentrations of PAHs were determined in edible tissues of commercially important seafood (fish and shrimp) samples collected from fish markets in 2005. Naphthalene, phenanthrene, fluoranthrene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene and chrysene were routinely detected in all samples analyzed. The concentrations of ΣPAHs ranged between 30 and 247 ng/g dry wt. with yellowfin seabream imported from Iran exhibiting the highest concentration followed by Nile tilapia imported from Egypt (218 ng/g dry wt.) and then by locally caught silver pomfret (142 ng/g dry wt.) and Jinga shrimp (139 ng/g dry wt.). The PAHs pattern was dominated by the presence of high molecular weight compounds with pyrene as the most prevalent compound (59.1% of the total). The mean exposure for the average adult Kuwaiti consumer to ΣPAHs and benzo(a)pyrene equivalents (BaPEs) was estimated to be 1.3 µg/day and 0.0013 µg/day, respectively. The concentration and composition of PAHs found in this study are similar to those reported for fish from the Arabian Gulf basin in other studies over the past two decades, suggesting that the sources of pollution might have remained relatively unchanged. Nevertheless, the levels of exposure to PAHs through seafood consumption in the Northern Arabian Gulf environment, particularly in Kuwait, do not represent an unacceptable health risk due to the fact that these exposure levels were below the reference dose established by the European Union law.

Key words: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), seafood, benzo(a)pyrene equivalents (BaPEs), Arabian Gulf.