Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Smoked Fish (Hydrocynus Forskahlii) from Tombia Community-Ekpetiama, Bayelsa State

The assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) was done in smoked fish (Hydrocynus forskahlii) gotten from Tombia Community-Ekpetiama, Bayelsa State. The smoked fish sample was oven dried and ground thereafter. 1g of the ground fish sample was weighed and digested using n-hexane. The solution was then filtered and the filtrate ran in Gas Chromatograph-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The following results were obtained, naphthalene 20.36µg/kg, 2-methylnaphthalene 1.91µg/kg, acenaphthylene 1.90µg/kg, acenaphthene 0.34µg/kg, fluorene 0.33µg/kg, flouranthene 7.05µg/kg, pyrene 3.50µg/kg, chrysene 0.07µg/kg, benz (a)anthracene 0.09µg/kg, benzo(b)fluoranthene 2.56µg/kg, benzo(k) fluoranthrene 6.66µg/kg, benzo(a)pyrene 0.087µg/kg, indeno(1,2,3–cd)pyrene 0.27µg/kg, dibenz(a,h)anthracene 0.76µg/kg while two PAHs phenanthrene and anthracene were not detected. The total concentration of the PAH was 45.89µg/kg. The ratios of ([Fla/ (Fla + Py]) is 0.66µg/kg and ([FLa/Py] is 2.02µg/kg]) which indicate the PAHs detected is from the smoking process. The maximum permissible level of the sum of PAH4 (Chrysene, Benz(a)anthracene, Benzo(b) fluoranthene, Benzo(a)pyrene) in smoked fishery products is 0.03 mg/kg (European Union., 2014) and the sum of PAH4 in this research work is 0.0002822mg/kg which is below the Europian Union (EU) recommended standard. The concentration of benzo(a)pyrene is below the E.U recommended limit of 5µg/kg indicating that the fish is healthy for consumption and may not pose cancer and other health risk.