The present study, deals with the estimation of degrees of contamination, ecological and human health risk of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in sediments, surface water and fishes, which were collected from middle stretch of Damodar river and ponds at Asansol, which receives outfall of various coal-based industries. Metal content in the premonsoon season was higher than the postmonsoon, due to influx of rainwater. The heavy metal pollution indices (HPI) at some locations was observed up to 1.45 times than recommended value and the cadmium (Cd) was found dominating metal for high HPI value. The Cd concentration in surface water and pore water varied from 2.8 to 14.9 µg/L and 15.3–57.0 µg/L, respectively, which was up to 6 times higher than the permissible limit. Ecological risk assessment for sediments illustrates ‘moderate to considerable ecological risk’, especially because of Cd. Hazard index (HI) calculated to identify potential human health risk by dermal exposure of surface water was <0.1, indicating ‘negligible non-cancer risk’ for all age group of people. However, HI varied from 0.73 to 1.49 for adult and 1.37–2.78 by consumption of fishes indicates children have higher ‘non-cancer risk’ than adult.

本研究处理了沉积物，地表水和鱼类中重金属（As，Cd，Cr，Cu，Mn，Ni，Pb和Zn）的污染程度，生态和人类健康风险的估算，这些重金属被收集来自Damodar河的中段和Asansol的池塘，那里接收了各种煤炭工业的排污口。由于雨水的涌入，季风季节的金属含量高于季风季节。在某些位置观察到的重金属污染指数（HPI）是建议值的1.45倍，而镉（Cd）被发现是高HPI值的主要金属。地表水和孔隙水中的Cd浓度分别为2.8至14.9 µg / L和15.3–57.0 µg / L，比允许限值高出6倍。沉积物的生态风险评估表明“中等至相当大的生态风险”，尤其是由于镉。通过皮肤接触地表水来识别潜在的人类健康风险的危险指数（HI）为<0.1，表明所有年龄段人群的“微不足道的非癌症风险”。然而，成人的HI值从0.73到1.49不等，而通过食用鱼类的HI值从1.37–2.78不等，表明儿童比成人的“非癌风险”更高。