Metal Contamination in Commercially Important Prawn and Shrimp Species Collected from Malad Market of Mumbai Suburb of India

The prawn and shrimp samples were collected from local markets of Malad suburban areas of Mumbai city from June to December 2012. These prawn and shrimp samples were dried in the laboratory and crushed into a fine powder by mortar and pestle and stored in amber coloured bottles in vacuum desiccators. These samples were evaluated by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emissions Spectroscopy for determination of the 10 heavy metals namely Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd and Hg. In the present work, the mean values at minimum and maximum concentrations of copper, zinc, iron and chromium in the prawns and shrimp samples were found below the maximum specified acceptable concentration whereas manganese, cobalt, nickel, lead and cadmium values were found above the maximum specified acceptable concentration as prescribed by WHO. The mean values of the minimum and maximum concentrations of mercury in the prawns and shrimp samples were either less than 0.001ppm or absent in all the species.