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Abstract
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Heavy metal pollution is currently identified among the most vital environmental and health hazards worldwide due to the long-term toxicity and bioaccumulative behavior of such metals like lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), and mercury (Hg) present in trace amounts. These metals can persist for decades within aquatic ecosystems, accumulate within aquatic organisms, and contribute to long-term illnesses within affected human populations. The Shatt Al-Arab River is currently the main source of freshwater usage within the city of Basrah and its environs, being responsible for consumption, agricultural usages, fishing, and domestic uses by a considerable human population. Current studies on Iraqi environmental hazards have highlighted very high traces of such toxic metals within this river and its deposits, particularly because of industrial emissions and corroded pipes [1], [3], [4].
The issue is more complicated by the geopolitical and economic history within this region, where conflict within these regions has raised the level of pollution over several decades. Despite this information, most available literature on Shatt Al-Arab is limited to analyzing metal concentration factors solely without exploring these results to derive actual human health hazards. This is a considerable scientific and human-health gap, particularly because human exposure to As and Cd can lead to increased life-term cancer hazards, along with Pb and Hg causing non-cancer hazards to nervous, hepatic, and renal functions, respectively [6], [9]. A systematic and quantitative methodological human-health-risk assessment, via U.S. EPA guidelines, is immediately required to identify carcinogenesis and non- carcinogenesis hazards within this region due to long-term human exposure hazards. The purpose of this investigation is to fill this particularly important information gap with regards to human utilization within this region being unavoidable due to utilization of this river wat
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