PHEs, environment and human health : potentially harmful elements in the environment and the impact on human health /

This book, with contributions by 40-plus international research scientists/experts, carefully and comprehensively examines potentially harmful elements (PHEs) and their health effects. It is an up-to-date review/study of the conditions (environmental quality) of the soil, and to a lesser extent, the atmosphere and estuarine/coastal ecosystems on a global scale. Soil is considered one of Earth's most vulnerable ecosystems, with limited resilience capacity. The soil-plant relationship can tolerate a limited pollutant load or flux from anthropogenic sources. Contamination with PHEs passes to vegetation supported by the soil. This book focuses on soil systems in four broad categories: agricultural soils, forest soils, soils around abandoned mines, and urban soils. Chapter contributors examine a representative sample of heavy metals and a few organometallic compounds. The emphasis is the measured amounts of PHEs taken from soils and plants worldwide and their ultimate, toxic effects on human health. Tables comparing individual heavy metal ion concentrations from different countries provide an interesting glimpse of past industrial and manufacturing activities in those sites. The book concludes with chapters on soil remediation, risk assessment, and food safety and trace elements. Black-and-white and color photographs; well-organized tables; clearly labeled charts and graphs; numerous chapter references. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Armen S. Casparian, Wentworth Institute of Technology