title: Total and inorganic arsenic levels in some marine organisms from Izmir Bay (Eastern Aegean Sea): a risk assessment.
abstract: The arsenic compounds in marine biota were evaluated from Izmir Bay (Eastern Aegean) and found that inorganic arsenic occurred as a minor fraction. No information is available on the annual variations of arsenic in important edible biota species from Izmir Bay. Fish and mussel samples were taken from different regions of Izmir Bay between 2009 and 2011 (n=854 individual specimens). The average percentages of inorganic arsenic to total arsenic for all biota samples were 3.43±3.38% with a range of 0.11-11.8%. The importance of speciation analysis for arsenic is supported by our work, because arsenic is ubiquitous in the ecosystem, and flexible toxicity of arsenic is based on chemical form. The average total As levels in Mullus barbatus were 6 times higher than Diplodus annularis and Mytilus galloprovincialis. This study also revealed that spatial variation influenced the arsenic levels in the fish samples and the highest concentrations of arsenic were found in Gediz site. Our study showed that estimated daily intakes of arsenic via consumption of flesh fish and shell fish were below the BMDL0.5 values established by FAO/WHO.
authors.affiliation: Dokuz Eylul University, Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology Inciralti, 35340 Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: filiz.ksezgin@deu.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kucuksezgin
authors.affiliation: Dokuz Eylul University, Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology Inciralti, 35340 Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Lutfi Tolga
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Gonul
authors.affiliation: Dokuz Eylul University, Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology Inciralti, 35340 Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Didem
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tasel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000737:chemistry*; D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D061006:Bays; D058448:Biota; D004435:Eating; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D001151:Arsenic
keywords: Arsenic; Biota; Izmir Bay (Eastern Aegean); Risk assessment; Spatio-temporal variation