Assessment of potential risks to human health due to consumption of the mussels collected in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Guanabara Bay is one of the largest coastal bays in Brazil, and it is an eutrophic, polluted system, impacted by largely untreated domestic runoff from the 8 million human inhabitants of its basin. In the present study the mussel Perna perna was collected in two monitoring campaigns in Guanabara Bay during December 2004 and July 2005 from 6 sites along the southern part of Bay; determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been done in the mussel soft tissues. Levels of PAHs in the mussel samples were 10-330 ng g-1 d.w. Results of this study indicated that contaminant levels were comparable to those reported in other local or regional studies. Since mussels are a common component in the human diet, and as they are known to be efficient bioconcentrators, their regular consumption could represent a risk to human health. In the present study the results indicated that all PAHs concentration for each sites, could pose a health risk to heavy seafood consumers.