The role of the European Community in developing environmental legislation has focused the minds of pollution control agencies and industrialists on the need for, and the evidence to support, water quality standards. This is particularly so for the Dangerous Substances Directive which has led to European standards for cadmium, mercury and lindane. Additionally the United Kingdom has published standards for six other non-ferrous metals. In this book I have sought to review the aquatic toxicity information for these and other metals, not just by the collation of the results of all the published toxicity tests, but by the critical consideration of the test techniques. A surprising proportion of the reported toxicity studies for aquatic organisms are based on unsatisfactory chemical or biological methods. That such weaknesses persist at a time of limited resources for environmental research is disappointing, especially when sound metho dologies are extensively documented and widely published. Evaluation of the critically reviewed and vetted data indicates that many of the previously accepted generalisations about the toxicity of metals to aquatic life are invalid: for instance the assumption that salmonid species of fish are more susceptible to these metals than coarse fish, or that increased water hardness decreases toxicity. Too few studies have actually sought to test such hypotheses.

Aquatic chemistry is becoming both a rewarding and substantial area of inquiry and is drawing many prominent scientists to its fold. Its literature has changed from a compilation of compositional tables to studies of the chemical reactions occurring within the aquatic environments. But more than this is the recognition that human society in part is determining the nature of aquatic systems. Since rivers deliver to the world ocean most of its dissolved and particulate components, the interactions of these two sets of waters determine the vitality of our coastal waters. This significant vol ume provides not only an introduction to the dynamics of aquatic chem istries but also identifies those materials that jeopardize the resources of both the marine and fluvial domains. Its very title provides its emphasis but clearly not its breadth in considering natural processes. The book will be of great value to those environmental scientists who are dedicated to keeping the resources of the hydrosphere renewable. As the size of the world population becomes larger in the near future and as the uses of materials and energy show parallel increases, the rivers and oceans must be considered as a resource to accept some of the wastes of society. The ability of these waters and the sediments below them to accommodate wastes must be assessed continually. The key questions relate to the capacities of aqueous systems to carry one or more pollutants.

Highlighted in this compilation of papers is the role and importance of heavy metals in the environment. It provides up-to-date information in a field of active research and progress, where the focus is on effects and interactions between the environment and organisms, as well as contaminant dynamics. Several papers address the impact of heavy metals on our health. The influence of metals on plants is described in an exhaustive study on lichens, which have been widely used as biomonitors for environmental contamination by heavy metals. Metals are also accumulated by animals, as seen in a chapter which focusses on sediment/benthic organism interactions and biomonitoring in fish. Soil interactions are discussed, as well as regional studies of freshwater sediments and the marine environment. The final part of the book addresses a crucial problem: the management of stabilized municipal waste sludges. As a result, the most important and significant recent trends are included, emphasizing interactions with and impacts of heavy metals on humans, animals, plants and soils.

This book provides a unique overview of research methods over the past 25 years assessing critical loads and temporal effects of the deposition of air pollutants. It includes critical load methods and applications addressing acidification, eutrophication and heavy metal pollution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Applications include examples for each air pollution threat, both at local and regional scale, including Europe, Asia, Canada and the US. The book starts with background information on the effects of the deposition of sulphur, nitrogen and heavy metals and geochemical and biological indicators for risk assessments. The use of those indicators is then illustrated in the assessment of critical loads and their exceedances and in the temporal assessment of air pollution risks. It also includes the most recent developments of assessing critical loads and current and future risks of soil and water chemistry and biodiversity under climate change, with a special focus on nitrogen. The book thus provides a complete overview of the knowledge that is currently used for the scientific support of policies in the field of air pollution control to protect ecosystem services.

The goal of this one-of-a-kind book was to provide a critical and in-depth understanding of various AVS-SEM models as predictors for assessing the ecological impact of heavy metals (particularly dibasic cations; Zn, Cd, Ni, Cu, and Pb) on aquatic environments, including the theories underlying these models, descriptive equations, modes of action, methodology, efficiency, applicability, and statistical approaches, as well as comparison with other pollution assessment techniques in the aquatic environments. Metals in interstitial water can be reduced in sediments that co-precipitate with iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) in FeS or MnS minerals, as well as replace them. This book outlines a system that can be used to track heavy metal contamination in countries with coastal regions that extend over water bodies that are subjected to pollution sources, such as the Mediterranean Basin countries. Moreover, this book will be of great interest to academics, professionals, practitioners, post-graduate students (M.Sc. and Ph.D.), and undergraduates because it gives a clear overview of heavy metal assessment for people interested in environmental studies focusing on the marine environment. It also provides decision-makers with a realistic perspective of the environmental file, allowing them to address environmental issues and directing stockholders to safer locations for environmental activity. From a future perspective, management is advised to overcome the difficulties within that technique, such as accurate handling procedures and different approaches to sampling onshore and offshore. Sequential leaching strategies, especially geochemical fractionation analysis, and knowledge of the interactions and significance of AVS in the marine sector, especially toxicity tests (bioassay) are recommended.

Heavy metals can be emitted into environment by both natural and anthropogenic sources, mainly mining and industrial activity. Human exposure occurs through all environmental media. Infants are more susceptible to the adverse effects of exposure. Increasing attention is now being paid to the mental development of children exposed to heavy metals. The purpose of this book is to evaluate the existing knowledge on intellectual impairment in children exposed to heavy metals in their living environment and to identify the research needs in order to obtain a clearer picture of the situation in countries and regions at risk, in which the economy is closely related to metallurgy and heavy metals emission, and to recommend a strategy for human protection. In greater detail the main objectives could be formulated as follows: to review the principal sources of single, and complex mixtures of, heavy metal pollutants in the environment; to identify suitable methodology for chemical analyses in the environment and in humans; to evaluate the existing methods for measuring mental impairment, including their reliability and validity; to recommend a standard testing protocol to be used in future research; to assess the future role of environmental heavy metal pollution in countries and regions at risk and its effects on children’s neurological development; to recommend a prevention strategy for protecting children’s health and development.

Fundamental societal changes resulted from the necessity of people to get organized in mining, transporting, processing, and circulating the heavy metals and their follow-up products, which in consequence resulted in a differentiation of society into diversified professions and even societal strata. Heavy metals are highly demanded technological materials, which drive welfare and progress of the human society, and often play essential metabolic roles. However, their eminent toxicity challenges the field of chemistry, physics, engineering, cleaner production, electronics, metabolomics, botany, biotechnology, and microbiology in an interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial manner. Today, all these scientific disciplines are called to dedicate their efforts in a synergistic way to avoid exposure of heavy metals into the eco- and biosphere, to reliably monitor and quantify heavy metal contamination, and to foster the development of novel strategies to remediate damage caused by heavy metals.