Heavy Metal Contamination and Its Effects on Ecosystems and Human Health: Challenges and Solutions
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Metals and Radioactive Substances".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2025 | Viewed by 50
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Naturally occurring elements with a high density that are harmful to all living things, including humans, are known as heavy metals. Lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, copper, and chromium are a few examples of prevalent heavy metals. They have been a major environmental problem, posing severe threats to ecosystems and human health due to their long-term environmental persistence.
Regulations and standards are put in place to limit and manage the discharge of heavy metals into the environment to combat heavy metal pollution. This covers the establishment of monitoring systems to determine the levels of heavy metal pollution in various environmental compartments, the enforcement of industry emission requirements, and the appropriate handling and disposal of hazardous waste. The lack of comprehensive studies addressing heavy metal contamination across different components in the environment is a critical concern for both environmental and human health due to the excessive contamination, bio-magnification, and toxicity of these pollutants.
The remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil is necessary to reduce the risks related to this contamination. Many techniques are used to minimize or remove heavy metals from the soil. Techniques like excavation and soil capping entail physically removing the contaminated soil or covering it with a barrier. The goal of chemical techniques like soil cleaning and chemical immobilization is to alter the chemical makeup of heavy metals in the soil so that they are less mobile and accessible to plants and other living things. Bioremediation offers an eco-friendly and cost-effective approach for the removal of heavy metals from the environment using certain species of plants and microorganisms.
Prof. Dr. Daochen Zhu
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- heavy metals
- contamination
- toxicity
- bioaccumulation
- health risk assessment
- bioremediation
- environment
- safety utilization
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