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CONTENTS |
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DESCRIPTION |
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| The term "Heavy Metal" is somewhat imprecise, but includes most metals with an atomic number greater than twenty, but excludes alkali metals, alkaline earths, lanthanides and actinides. Human civilization started with the accidental discovery of-especially Copper. Since then living organisms have taken long strides with the help of metals. We can now fly in the air, travel on land and enjoy marine explorations with their help. Plants and animals have accumulated them since long. Chlorophyll contains Magnesium and iron, blood contains iron, bones contain Calcium. All these metals and a few more are beneficial but all metals are not so. Beneficial metals too become toxic when present in high concentration and lead to metallic pollution. With industrialization in developed and developing countries, heavy metals have come to the forefront. Heavy metals have become pollutants. The vegetation has a mediatory role. It absorbs heavy metals; animals and human beings consume the heavy metal contaminated vegetation. The metals thus reach from environment to human system. The accumulation of heavy metals in various animals and human organs leads to various diseases. The human health outcome of environmental contamination by heavy metals, particularly Cadmium & Mercury have been amply demonstrated by the well known itai-itai and Minamata episodes in japan. The present human civilization is plagued with metallic pollution. Therefore, there is need to understand the basic ideas lying behind it. The nature of the metals, the way they become absorbed, the amount needed and the toxic levels need to be determined. Monitoring and bioassay may help in controlling their levels and at the same time may help in forecasting their concentration in air, water, soil, flora and fauna. The book starts with a chapter on introduction, followed by sources and emission of heavy metals, heavy metal in the air, heavy metals in rain water, heavy metals in soil, bioconcentration of metals, heavy metal effects on vegetation, heavy metal effects on community structure, heavy metals effects on production, heavy metal effects on physiological phenomena, heavy metal effects at subcellular levels, heavy metal effects on reproductive capacity of plants, heavy metal effects in aquatic organisms, health hazards from heavy metals, epidemiology of Mercury pollution, epidemiology of Cadmium pollution, bibliography and subject index. |
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