It’s Time to Replace the Term “Heavy Metals” with “Potentially Toxic Elements” When Reporting Environmental Research

Toxic Heavy Metals

Vulnerability of the karst area related to potentially toxic elements

Soil samples from 31 locations in the Una river spring catchment were subject to chemical extraction analyses. The data were presented as distribution maps of potentially toxic elements (Al, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn) in the surface soil of the area. To evaluate the vulnerability of the immediate spring zone of the karst catchment, the vulnerability map was derived from the application of the PI method...

The accumulation of potentially-toxic metals by grazing ruminants.

The main factors affecting the accumulation of potentially-toxic metals (PTM) by grazing animals are the presence of the metal, its concentration in herbage and at the soil surface, and the duration of exposure to the contaminated pasture and soil. In addition, the elapsed time between the contamination of the pasture and grazing, the quantity of soil ingested together with herbage, the mechani...

Environmental Geochemistry of Potentially Toxic elements in thermal springs in the Sabalan Volcanic Field, NW Iran

Thermal springs are widely used by tourists for treatment of dermal diseases and other therapeutic applications. In Iran, thermal springs occur in Northwestern part mainly surrounding the Mount Sabalan which attract hundreds of thousands of tourists annually. Two clusters of springs in Neer and Meshkinshahr areas including 16 thermomineralic springs have been studied in this research and they w...

Newer systems for bacterial resistances to toxic heavy metals.

Bacterial plasmids contain specific genes for resistances to toxic heavy metal ions including Ag+, AsO2-, AsO4(3-), Cd2+, Co2+, CrO4(2-), Cu2+, Hg2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, Sb3+, and Zn2+. Recent progress with plasmid copper-resistance systems in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas syringae show a system of four gene products, an inner membrane protein (PcoD), an outer membrane protein (PcoB), and two peripl...