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Perspective Chapter: Heavy Metals-Mediated Chemical Contamination in Foods, Associated Health Risks, and Remediation Techniques
Summary
This review examines heavy metal contamination in food from environmental sources like mining, industrial discharge, and agricultural chemicals. While focused on metals rather than microplastics, the pathways described overlap significantly with how microplastics enter the food chain through contaminated soil, water, and air. The authors discuss health risks and remediation techniques that may also be relevant to addressing co-contamination by microplastics and heavy metals.
Environmental contamination is one of the great challenges worldwide. It is exponentially increasing through natural and non-natural sources, particularly through anthropogenic activities. Pollutants such as heavy metals, SO2, CO, nitrogen oxides, biological contaminants, ozone, etc., are serious threats to the environment. Among others, the heavy metals exploration through mining, their natural addition to the various vegetables/foods from the soil, and their presence in air and water are recognized as the riskiest factors contributing to environmental contamination. The presence of heavy metals in the environment, particularly in foodstuffs poses highly toxic effects on human health which compel the scientist to identify the levels of these heavy metals in the foodstuffs as well as to design green strategies to overcome the health-related challenges with the used of the heavy metals contaminated foods. The present chapter focuses on the heavy metals presence in different foods through dietary intake, sources of these metals, the associated risks, and reported heavy metals remediation strategies for foods including physical, chemical, bioremediation, and others.
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