Assessment of cadmium concentration in fish and edible plant in Tuaran river and its risk to human health / Putri Diyanah Alias

The progress of industries has led to the increased of pollutants emission into the ecosystems. One of the most common pollutants is heavy metals. This research deals with human health risk assessment of heavy metal cadmium contamination through the consumption of fish and edible plant at Tuaran River, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The objective of this research is to determine the concentration of cadmium contaminant in fish and edible plant, and to calculate the risk hazard to human from the consumption. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) model PG-990 was used to determine the concentration of the heavy metal in samples. The concentration obtained will be used in HQ calculation. Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) was used in the health risk assessment to determine carcinogenicity of the sample. The result shows that the concentration and HQ of fish and edible plant samples are less than 1; signifies that a daily exposure at this level is unlikely to cause any adverse effects on human.