Metals environmental contamination

Mercury and lead are two of the most prominent metallic environmental contaminants today. Although there have been continued elforts to prevent distribution of these metals and to clean up sources of contamination, they are still serious problems. Other metals and semimetals, such as arsenic, also cause significant health effects. Some of them are described here. 

Conduct exploratory and engineering activities in the methods and technology of manufacture as applied to assigned commodities and their components, materials and ancillary equipment except projectile metal parts which are the responsibility of Frank ford Arsenal, and specified elements of chemical items which are the re-sponsibility of Edge wood Arsenal. This is to include support of plant/facilities modernization within ARMCOM, abatement of environmental contamination caused by manufacturing processes and exploitation of automation techniques... 

Law RJ. 1996. Metals in marine mammals. In Beyer WN, Heinz GH, Redmon-Norwood AW, editors. Environmental contaminants in wildlife interpreting tissue concentrations. Boca Raton (FL) CRC Press, p. 357-376. 

Shukla, O.P., Dubey, S., and Rai, U.N., Preferential accumulation of cadmium and chromium Toxicity in Bacopa monnieri L. under mixed metal treatments, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 78, 252-257, 2007. 

Sandrin, T. and Hoffman, D., Bioremediation of organic and metal co-contaminated environments Effects of metal toxicity, speciation, and bioavailability on biodegradation, in Environmental Bioremediation Technologies, Singh, S.N. and Tripathi, R.D., Eds, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2007, pp. 1-34. 

The ancient Egyptians used lead as early as the fourth millennium b.c.e. Later, the Romans developed and expanded the use of lead during the Roman Empire to impressive levels, so lead is often referred to as the Roman metal. The large-scale use of the metal most probably caused considerable environmental contamination of food, drink, and the atmosphere (Nriagu 1983). 

Sawicka-Kapusta, K., R. Swiergosz, and M. Zakrzewska. 1990. Bank voles as monitors of environmental contamination by heavy metals. A remote wilderness area in Poland imperilled. Environ. Pollut. 67 315-324. 

Rolfe, G.L. and K.A. Reinbold. 1977. Environmental Contamination by Lead and Other Heavy Metals. Volume I Introduction and Summary. Univ. Illinois, Inst. Environ. Studies, Urbana-Champaign. 120 pp. 

In one of the founding studies in immunotoxicology, Friend and Trainer [77] demonstrated that exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) increased mortality of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) ducklings challenged with duck hepatitis virus. Since then the field of avian immunotoxicology has expanded to show that both the structure and function of the avian immune system often is affected by a diverse array of environmental contaminants, including heavy metals, pesticides, petroleum hydrocarbons, and organic industrial chemicals. Wild birds have proven to be excellent sentinel species for assess-... 

Primary sources of environmental contamination with PCDD/PCDFs in the past were the production and use of organic chemicals containing chlorine. PCDFs were formed as inadvertent by-products in the production and use of PCBs and, in combination with PCDDs, in such high-temperature processes as waste incineration, the metal industry, home heating and other energy production processes. 

Evans, R. D., Richner, P., and Outridge, P.M. (1995). Micro-spatial variations of heavy metals in the teeth of Walrus as determined by laser ablation ICP-MS The potential for reconstructing a history of metal exposure. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 28 55-60. 

Trace elements include heavy metals, some of which have recently received particular attention. Many definitions of heavy metals have been put forward. The simplest and most precise describes heavy metals as all metal compounds of atomic weight over 20. Other definitions are based on the specific weight, and give the lower limits for heavy metals as 4.5, 5, or even 6 g per cm. Due to toxicity of some heavy metals and the possibility of environmental contamination, the potential for high risk is linked to Hg, Cd, As, Pb, as well as Cu, Zn, Sn, Cr, Ni. 

Stoessel RP, Michaelis W. 1986. Wet and dry deposition of heavy metals. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Environmental Contamination, Amsterdam, Netherlands CEP Consultants, Ltd. Amsterdam 85-88. 

Environmental Research and Development, Inc., offers the neutral process, which reduces hex-avalent chromium using sulfide catalyzed by ferrous iron, while precipitating heavy metals at pH ranges from 7.4 to 8.4. The vendor has combined this technology with cross-flow microfiltration to remove heavy metals from contaminated groundwater and wastewater without the need for large clarifiers. The technology has been used at U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) sites and is commercially available. 

StoreUi, M. and Marcotrigiano, G. (2001). Heavy metals monitoring in fish, bivalve molluscs, water and sediments from Varano I agoon, Italy. Brrlletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 66 365-370. 

Crannell, B. S., Eighmy, T. T., Butler, L., Emery, E. Cartledge, F. 2003a. Use of phosphate to stabilize heavy metals in contaminated sediments. In Pederson, J. Adams, E. (eds) Dredged Material Management Options and Environmental Concerns. MIT Sea Grant Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 175-178. 

Sudhakar, G., Jyothi, B. Venkateswarlu, V. (1991). Metal pollution and its impact on algae in flowing waters in India. Archives of Environmental Contamination andToxicology, 21, 556-66. 

Farag, A.M., Woodward, D.F., Goldstein, J.N. et al. (1998) Concentrations of metals associated with mining waste in sediments, biofilm, benthic macroinvertebrates, and fish from the Coeur d Alene River Basin, Idaho. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 34(2), 119-27. 

Harrington, J.M., Fendorf, S.E. and Rosenzweig, R.F. (1998) Biotic generation of arsenic(III) in metal(loid)-contaminated freshwater lake sediments. Environmental Science and Technology, 32(16), 2425-30. 

May, T.W., Wiedmeyer, R.H., Gober, J. and Larson, S. (2001) Influence of mining-related activities on concentrations of metals in water and sediment from streams of the Black Hills, South Dakota. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 40(1), 1-9. 

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