Metals in the Environment: Toxic Metals Removal

Faced with more and more stringent environmental regulations, nowadays heavy metals are the priority pollutants of surface and ground waters. Water contamination with these compounds is becoming one of the most serious environmental problems because of the toxic nature of the heavy metal ions, even at low trace levels. With the rapid development of industries such as metal plating facilities, mining operations, tanneries, fertilisers, and paper industries, heavy metals wastewaters are directly or indirectly discharged into the environment increasingly. Unlike organic contaminants, heavy metals are not biodegradable and tend to accumulate in living organisms. Many heavy metal ions, such as mercury, cadmium, lead, nickel, and chromium, are known to be very toxic or carcinogenic. Due to the noxious effects of heavy metals, there are growing public health concerns about environmental pollution with heavy metals. Thus, it is imperative to remove or reduce heavy metal contamination in water in order to prevent or reduce contaminating the environment and the possibility of uptake in the food web. This issue contains original research studies on removal of heavy metals from water by different treatment methods including adsorption, membranes, and coagulation.

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Published in: Bioinorganic Chemistry and Applications
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/4309198