Determination of some heavy metal levels in three freshwater fish in Keban Dam Lake (Turkey) for public consumption

Abstract

Due to industrialization, a number of factories and human population have increased rapidly. As a result, the amount of waste matter such as heavy metals released to the environment has been increased. Specifically aquatic systems are more sensitive to heavy metal pollution and the gradual increase in the levels of such metals in aquatic environments, mainly due to anthropogenic sources, have become a problem of primary concern (Ashraf et al., 2012). The natural aquatic ecosystems may extensively be contaminated with heavy metals released from domestic, industrial and other anthropogenic activities (Kamaruzzaman et al., 2011).