Chemical Contamination In Different Marine Organisms Along The Lebanese Coast PDF Download

Global food fish consumption has been in continuous increase and fishery products have become some of the most traded items in the world. However, the quality of these products is becoming an issue of concern to human health with the increase of anthropogenic activities threatening marine coastal ecosystems. Therefore, despite the well-known health benefits of fishery products, their consumption may be a route of human exposure to different kinds of chemical contaminants including trace elements. In this context, evaluating the contamination levels in these products and the risks they may engender to human health proves to be a necessity in the absence of local guidelines and monitoring programs. Thus, the thesis has 2 main objectives: i) the evaluation of environmental quality through marine organisms and, ii) the assessment of health risks related to the consumption of a selection of fishery products.The first objective was to study the levels of metallic contaminants (20 trace elements) in six marine species from different trophic levels of a food web (algae, mussel, shrimp and fish), representative of Lebanese coastal waters. The results showed that species accumulated metals differently underlining the importance of a multi-specific approach to reflect the contamination level of a certain site. Inter-site variations have been found mainly during the rainy period of the year while they were less prominent during the dry season, highlighting the effect of land-based sources and riverine effluents on the marine coastal area. Levels of trace elements in the muscles and edible tissues in species from our study, were similar to the ones reported in the Eastern Mediterranean (Levantine Basin) whereas livers showed higher levels compared to other studies suggesting that the Lebanese coast is exposed to strong environmental pressure. The second objective was to evaluate the health risks related to the consumption of different fishery products sampled along the Lebanese coast. In this prospect, five commonly consumed local species belonging to different compartments of the food chain, (1 bivalve, 1 crustacean and 3 fish species) sampled from three sites with different levels of anthropogenic pressures were selected. The samples were all analyzed for their content of trace elements. Metals such as mercury (Hg) are found in several chemical forms, the most toxic form being methylmercury (MeHg). The main route of human exposure to MeHg is the consumption of fishery products. That's why, a method for the speciation of mercury in fishery products by HPLC-ICP-MS was optimized and validated based on an accuracy profile. The results showed that the levels of trace elements and MeHg in the selected species were all below the allowed maximum levels set by the European commission and so their consumption is not likely to cause any adverse effects to human health.