Concentration of Heavy Metals in the Territorial Sea Water of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Arabian Gulf PDF

Keywords

Trace metals, Seawater, Bahrain, Quality, Standards

Abstract

This is the first investigation for the analysis of heavy metal covering the territorial water of Kingdom of Bahrain. For the purpose of establishing baseline, as well as the assessment of marine contamination due to heavy metals, sea waters were collected from 23 different sites known as fishing areas of the territorial water of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the year 2007. The heavy metals analyzed were Arsenic, Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), Vanadium (V), Zinc (Zn) and Mercury (Hg), using Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, V, Zn and Hg were in the range of 0.85-2.75 , 0.06-5.20,4.53-119.00, l.03-28.62, 0.06-l.24, 0.71¬ 20.1, l.13-2.01 , 1.13-9.93,0.96-2.32,4.06-118.00, and 0.13-0.38 }lg/l, respectively, representing the baseline trace metal concentrations of sea water in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The results suggest that the Kingdom of Bahrain's marine waters seem to be of good quality as the concentrations of the metals reported in the studied areas are far below the United Kingdom Water quality standards and United States Environmental Protection Agency recommended water quality criteria, with the exception of copper in all sites, and Mercury (Hg) in Msoor site. In general, concentrations of trace elements in sea water were similar to those of other areas worldwide, and were deemed not to be of any toxicological significance.