Mercury and other trace metals in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) grown with two low-salinity shrimp effluents: Accumulation and human health risk assessment.

Shrimp farming effluents from two sources of low-salinity water, well water (WW) and diluted seawater (DSW) (salinity, 1.7 g L-1; electrical conductivity, 2.7 dS m-1), were used to grow lettuce (L. sativa) in order to assimilate the nutrients present in shrimp effluents and produce edible biomass. The two treatments, WW and DSW, were tested in triplicate. Additionally, one hydroponic system in triplicate was constructed to grow lettuce using a nutritive solution as the control treatment (HS). The production variables of lettuce in the two crop varieties (Parris Island (VPI) and Tropicana M1 (VTM1)) showed a general trend of DSW > HS > WW with regards to the size, weight and total foliage, except for the number of leaves, which was higher with HS treatment than with WW and DSW treatments. The accumulation of Cu, Hg, Mn and Zn in edible lettuce tissue and the health risk by the intake of lettuce were evaluated. Heavy metal concentrations in edible lettuce tissue for the three treatments showed the same trend of Mn > Zn > Cu > Hg, with concentration ranges of 47.1 to 188.7, 35.7 to 66.2, 4.1 to 6.4, and 0.01 to 0.02 mg kg-1 (dry weight), respectively. Such concentrations did not exceed the safe limits (CAC, 1984). The health risk index and target hazard quotient were <1, which indicates that the population exposed to these metals due to intake from lettuce consumption is unlikely to have adverse health effects when shrimp farming effluents are used to grow lettuce plants.