Bioaccumulation organometallic compounds

Mercury, tin, lead, arsenic, and antimony form toxic lipophilic organometallic compounds, which have a potential for bioaccumulation/bioconcentration in food chains. Apart from anthropogenic organometallic compounds, methyl derivatives of mercury and arsenic are biosynthesized from inorganic precursors in the natural environment. 

Many studies have focussed on the uptake and bioaccumulation from water, and have resulted in models. Most of these existing models for the steady-state BCF are valid only for non-ionised organic chemicals and less for ionised chemicals or organometallic compounds. For practical purposes, a kind of worst-case BCF can be estimated for non-ionised organic chemicals based on the published BCF-Kq correlations. 

In the last decade the case of methylmercury pollution has demonstrated the profound importance of understanding biologically mediated transformation reactions that produce organometallic compounds with a high potential for bioaccumulation and toxicity. 

Contents indude metabolic processes, microbial processes, biodegradation and bioaccumulation, aquatic and soil biochemistry, organometallics, inorganic and organic toxic compounds, and toxic natural products. 

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