The Human Health Risk of Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg), and Lead (Pb) Exposure in The Upper Citarum River Basin, West Java, Indonesia

The Citarum River is the longest river in West Java stretching from Bandung City to the Jakarta bay. This river has been utilized as a vital object to provide power generation, irrigation, drinking water, and household utilities. The existence of heavy metals such as mercury (hg), cadmium (Cd), & Lead (Pb) in the river has become a serious concern. This research was aimed to analyze human health risk exposed by heavy metals from the consumption of the water, fish, and vegetables around the upper Citarum River. River water, well water, fish, & vegetables were collected around The Citarum River to analyze heavy metals content (Hg, Cd, and Pb). In this research, the concentration of Cd in all samples were below the standard limit. The concentration of Hg in fish & vegetables samples ranged from 0.17 – 0.78 mg/kg and <0.02 – 0.042 mg/kg, respectively. Meanwhile, Hg concentration was below the limit of detection for river and well water. Pb concentration in river, well water and vegetables were below 0.005 mg/l & below 0.1 mg/kg, respectively. Pb concentration in fish samples ranged from < 0.1 – 0.28 mg/kg. In this result, we found that fish sample D had the highest concentration for all heavy metals than other samples. It was estimated that fish samples around the upper Citarum River were not safe for consumption based on Hg tolerable daily intake with risk question (RQ) value was over than 1. However, it was still tolerable for Cd and Pb.