BY THE MOUTH THE FISH DIES: RISK FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION?

LLAMAZARES VEGH SABINA; AVIGLIANO, ESTEBAN; VOLPEDO ALEJANDRA V.

Mar del Plata

Jornada; XXV JORNADAS ANUALES DE LA SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE BIOLOGÍA (SAB); 2023

Several coastal areas of the world are impacted by anthropogenic activities, which significantly affect marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and fisheries. The role of metals and metalloids as contaminants has been widely recognized as they constitute a serious problem due to their negative effect on ecosystems, particularly in aquatic food chains where they can bioaccumulate and transfer between different trophic levels. Fish meat is considered a high-quality source of proteins and vitamins, rich in essential amino acids, omega-3 type fats, and several micro-and macro elements. Nevertheless, fish has been shown to contain variable amounts of metals and metalloids, often in concentrations that exceed the recommended maximum levels, which generate a controversial debate on the health benefits and risks associated with its consumption. In the last decade, the global per capita fish consumption has increased, reaching values higher than 20 kg/year/person in 2019. Furthermore, the average consumption per capita varies according to the population of each country. For example, in Argentina it ranged between 4.8 to 8 kg/year/person. One of the difficulties that exists to estimate the risk generated by the presence of trace elements in fish for human consumption is that in Argentina there is no detailed information on which species are mainly consumed in each region of the country. In other words, the average value of fish consumption at the national level is not adequate to estimate the risk for different sectors of society. This is due to the fact that the consumption of fish is heterogeneous in the country, there being areas where its consumption is greater, for example in the Mesopotamian provinces, or that the profile of the consumers is different, for example the people associated with to fishing activity (fishermen and their families) consume a greater amount of this type of protein. For this reason, the consumption risk calculation should be differentiated in order to take early warning measures in the event that the concentrations of trace elements are high in some of the species consumed. The assessment of potential consumption risks associated with levels of potentially toxic metals in fish is essential for health and sanitary surveillance bodies to develop guidelines and warnings for the general population on the safe consumption of the target species, particularly for vulnerable groups such as fishermen.