Heavy metal evaluation of river and fish in Kuala Selangor, Selangor / Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid

Heavy metals considered as a major source of metal contamination in surrounding environment, especially aquatic (water). Heavy metals can cause illness as the accumulation in fish could pose potential risk to human. The aim of this study is to determine the physico-chemical parameter of river water, heavy metal concentration of river water and fish muscle tissue, and the potential health risk to human. The physico-chemical parameters of river water samples were tested using a multi-parameter probe, followed by digestion method involving HNO 3 to be analyzed for metal concentration using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. For fish samples, dry ashing method was used using a muffle furnace to prepare samples for metal concentration determination. The result showed no violation on physico-chemical parameters. However, there was a violation on cadmium concentration (0.016 mg/L) in water samples based on the standard regulation limit (0.001mg/L) but no violation recorded in the fish samples. Besides that, there are no violation of metal concentration were recorded on lead and copper in both samples. Hazard quotient for Pb, Cu and Cd indicated that there were no potential health risk to human via consumption of the fish. Simple linear regression model was used to determine the relationship between metal concentration in river water samples and fish samples. However, a p-Value of 0.132 (p>0.05) was obtained indicating that there was no significant difference between metal concentration in river water samples and the fish samples.