Mercury and Cadmium Levels of Fish Consumed in Konya and Its Around

In this study, cadmium and mercury levels of fish consumed in Konya were de-termined and the results were evaluated for human health. In this experiment, three different fish; Trachurus trachurus, Scomber scombrus and Sardina pil-chardus were obtained from markets, totally 63 samples, 21 samples of each species were used. The length and weight of the samples were measured. The metal level in the edible muscle parts of the samples was measured by Perkin Elmer Optima DV 2000 model ICP-OES. The mean, minimum and maximum concentrations of mercury and cadmium in examined fish species were found as mercury 98.11, 83.45, 122.20 ng/g, cadmium 0.041, 0.017, 0.087 μg/g in Tra-churus trachurus; mercury 99.76, 82.34, 118.12 ng/g, cadmium 0.094, 0.065, 0.129 μg/g in Sardina pilchardus; mercury 106.60, 85.26, 138.20 ng/g, cadmium 0.062, 0.042, 0.091 μg/g in Scomber scombrus, respectively. The posıtive cor-relation was found between the length – weight and the metal levels in some species. The length and weight of Scomber scombrus were positively correlated with mercury bioaccumulation. Mercury level increased with increasing the length of Sardina pilchardus. It is concluded that mercury and cadmium levels of fish consumed in Konya were not harmful for human health