Metal pollution and potential human health risk assessment in major seafood items (fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods).

Global seafood consumers are increasingly concerned about and prefer safe, high-quality, and hazard-free seafood products. This study investigated various Pakistani processing plants supplying the international market and explored commercially important seafood species (fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods) for metal content, contamination, and potential health risks. The results showed that the metal concentrations differed significantly among species. The metals loads were as Fe > Cu > Zn > Mn > Pb > Ni > Cd > Hg. Contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), and metal pollution index (MPI), verified negligible contamination of seafood. As assessed by the estimated daily intake, target hazard quotient, hazard index, and carcinogenic risk, the potential human health risks associated with the contaminated seafood were lower than the perceived threat. In conclusion, seafood processing plants export products that meet international food safety standards and are safe for consumers worldwide.

Occupational lead toxicity in battery workers.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate blood lead level (BLL) and to assess the features of lead toxicity among lead acid battery (LAB) industrial workers. METHODS: This prospective study was carried out in the medical centre of PCSIR Laboratories, Karachi from March 2012 - March 2013. Fifty LAB industry workers, males and females between 17-65 years were included in the study. They were divided into group 1 with 40 workers- directly related and group 2 with 10 workers -indirectly related, (administration staff members) to LAB manufacture. Detailed history, complete physical examination and BLL estimation by flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometer was done. RESULTS: Total 34 patients in group 1 and 3 patients in group 2 had elevated BLL. Comparison of group 1 and 2 revealed anemia (40v/s4), bone pain (38v/s7), abdominal pain (38 v/s 2), nausea (32v/s6), head ache & irritability (24v/s6), weakness & lethargy (21v/s6), tremors (13v/s0) insomnia (5v/s4), lead line (4v/s 0) and blood pressure above 140/90 mm of Hg (12v/s0) respectively. CONCLUSION: High blood lead level and features attributable to lead toxicity were prevalent among LAB industry workers of Karachi.

Determination of essential elements (Cu, Fe and Zn) in juices of commercially available in Pakistan.

In present work, the concentration of essential elements, copper (Cu), iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) were measured in ten different juices, to evaluate whether the intakes of under study nutrients accomplished within recommended permissible levels. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) was used to estimate and evaluate the levels of essential elements such as Cu, Fe and Zn in ten juice samples. The elements were analyzed prior to microwave assisted acid digestion (MAD). For comparison purpose, wet acid digestion (CAD) method was used for determination of essential elements. The accuracy of proposed method was evaluated by performing addition-recovery experiments to prove the reliability of the method. All obtained analytical results by MAD and CAD showed a good agreement at a 95% confidence level. The detection limits of Cu, Fe and Zn were 22.7 microg/L, 3.85 microg/L and 3.05 microg/L. The dietary intakes of all three studied elements have also been estimated.

Chronic Arsenic poisoning.

Chronic Arsenic Toxicity may have varied clinical presentations ranging from non-cancerous manifestations to malignancy of skin and different internal organs. Dermal lesions such as hyper pigmentation and hyperkeratosis, predominantly over palms and soles are diagnostic of Chronic Arsenicosis. We report two cases from a family living in Sukkur who presented with classical skin lesions described in Chronic Arsenicosis. The urine, nail and hair samples of these patients contained markedly elevated levels of arsenic. Also the water samples from their household and the neighbouring households were found to have alarming levels of inorganic Arsenic.

Assessment of hydrocarbons concentration in marine fauna due to Tasman Spirit oil spill along the Clifton beach at Karachi coast.

On 27 July 2003, Tasman Spirit spilled 31,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea at the Karachi coast. This disaster badly affected the marine life (Flora and Fauna.) Present research has been proposed to ascertain the level of Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contamination in different fisheries including Fishes, Crustaceans; Crabs and Shrimps, Mollusks and Echinoderms along with passing time. Heavier components of crude oil such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) appear to cause most damages as these are relatively unreactive and persist in water. High concentrations of toxic PAHs were observed in all the fisheries and shellfishes caught form oil-impacted area. In this study fishes were found most contaminated than shellfishes i.e. summation operator 16 PAH = 1821.24 microg/g and summation operator 1164.34 microg/g, respectively. Naphthalene was found in the range of 0.042-602.23 microg/g. Acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene and anthracene were detected in the range 0.008-80.03 microg/g, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene and chrysene 0.0008-221.32 microg/g, benzo(b) fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene and benzo(a) pyrene 0.0005-7.71 microg/g, benzo(g,h,i)perylene and indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene 0.02-503.7 microg/g. Dibenzo(a,h)anthracenre was not detected in any specie.