Avaliação de danos ecológicos e à saúde humana causados pelo derramamento de óleo de origem desconhecida em unidades de conservação do litoral semiárido brasileiro

Abstract

Environmental disasters from oil spills are common; in 2019, more than 3 thousand kilometers of the Brazilian coast were affected by oil. Several studies show the persistence of hydrocarbons from oil spills in coastal environments, such as rocky shores, mangroves, sandy beaches and coral reefs. However, few of them have evaluated, in a standardized way, the impacts caused to the marine biota and the human population that consumes these organisms. The objective of this study is to evaluate ecological damage and toxicological risks to the health of traditional populations from two coastal and marine protected areas affected by oil on the coast of Ceará: Canoa Quebrada Environmental Protection Area and Delta do Parnaíba Environmental Protection Area. In these areas, targets (ecological and socioeconomic resources) potentially susceptible to oil were identified and mapped, using the approach proposed by NOAA for the environmental sensitivity index (ESI) maps. Sediment and marine organisms used as human food were also collected, including the bivalve sururu (Mytella charruana), the uçá crab (Ucides cordatus) and catfish (Sciades herzbergii). Chemical analyzes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments and organisms (whole organisms in the case of bivalves, muscle and liver/hepatopancreas in the case of fish and crabs) were performed to calculate the concentration and bioaccumulation of PAHs. These data was used to calculate the toxicological risks to the health of traditional populations by the consumption of organisms. In the tissues of the organisms, biomarkers of effect were also analyzed, such as liperoxidation (LPO) and DNA damage. The results were compared using the student’s t-test. Bioaccumulation showed higher hydrocarbon concentrations in fish and sururu samples collected in the Parnaíba Delta, while for crabs the greatest impact was in Canoa Quebrada. Regarding the health risk, crab and fish samples from Canoa Quebrada presented higher values, while for the sururus the health risk was greater for the traditional population of the Parnaíba Delta. In the biomarkers analyzes sururus and fish from Parnaíba Delta were more affected, while crabs from both sites did not show significant differences.