Ecological and human health risk assessment of total petroleum hydrocarbons in surface water and sediments from the northern part of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, NIOF, Cairo, Egypt

2 National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, NIOF, Cairo, Egyp

Abstract

Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in coastal seawater and marine sediments have attracted much interest because of their potential danger to aquatic ecosystems and human health. This research evaluated seasonal variations and ecological and human health concerns associated with total petroleum hydrocarbon (THPs) in surface water and sediment samples from the northern Gulf of Suez in 2019. Spectrophotometric detection was used to determine the concentration of TPHs in water and sediment samples that had been extracted using liquid-liquid and sonication extraction techniques, respectively. TPHs seasonal means in the water and sediment samples collected from the studied area showed that summer has the lowest levels of this pollutant, and ordered by winter (20.35) > autumn (17.51) > spring (11.55) > summer (17.88 µg/l), and winter (77.64) > summer (64.54 µg/g) for water and sediment samples, respectively. There was a highly significant correlation between physical parameters and TPHs in water and sediments. Evaluation of ecological risk using the pollution index (PI) and Nemerow pollution index (NPI) recorded moderate and low pollution, respectively. The non-carcinogenic risk of TPHs calculated in the water column and sediments by dermal absorption were lower than the target value (< 1) for adults and children. For human health risk, the carcinogenic dermal risk of TPHs was more than the acceptable limits (1 x10-4 - 1 x 10-6) for adults. In contrast, the carcinogenic dermal risk of TPHs was lower than the acceptable limits (1 x10-4 - 1 x 10-6) for children. Therefore, it follows that the body of water is contaminated and that the necessary measures should be taken to rein in all the sources of pollution there.

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