Exploring Potential Human Health Risks Linked to Heavy Metal(Loid)s in Dietary Fishes: Utilizing Data-Driven and Computational Modelling Approaches

Abstract

There are signiicant concerns about the risks to human health posed by metal(loid) contamination in dietary ishes in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate heavy metal(loid) contamination in ish and their associated health risks using

published data from 2000 to 2022. Additionally, the safe limit of ish consumption was estimated using the target hazard

quotient (THQ) followed by computational modelling and artiicial neural networks (ANN). Results showed that freshwater

and herbivorous ishes pose the least non-cancer risks, whereas saltwater and carnivorous ishes pose the highest non-cancer

risks to Bangladeshi consumers. However, freshwater and omnivorous ish consumption pose the highest cancer risks compared to all studied metal(loid)s. In particular, among the heavy metal(loid)s, As, Cr, Hg, and Ni pose signiicant cancer and

non-cancer risks to Bangladeshi consumers. On the contrary, the ANN and Decision tree regression (DTR) characterized

the dataset, simulation model, or data testing condition, reaching 94.7% accuracy and allowing us to measure the safest ish

consumption limit. The herbivorous ishes are less contaminated and allow greater consumption (175.09 g day ). Contrarily, the allowable intake rates of carnivorous and omnivorous ishes are 153.05 and 168.63 g day −1 , respectively. Besides, the safe consumption rate of saltwater ishes was 156.51 g day −1 , which was lower than freshwater (180.59 g day ) and euryhaline ishes (182.17 g day −1 ). Therefore, this study will assist ish consumers in selecting less contaminated ish, ensuring safe consumption levels, and ultimately reducing health risks associated with metal(loid) contamination in ish.