Release of Heavy Metals in the Environment

     Hazardous wastes are another problem for the water in our world. These wastes are toxic, reactive, corrosive or ignitable. Most problems come from humans not storing the substance properly or not disposing of it correctly. This can be easily proven in 1969, when the Cuyahoga River, in Cleveland, Ohio, caught on fire and burned for sometime. Since this happened environmentalists have taken extreme measures to reduce the amount of pollution that is coming out of the power plants that are on the river and on Lake Erie.

Most people are surprised to learn that their bodies are contaminated with heavy metals. This is a little-known problem that has grown into a widespread issue. There are many different ways your body becomes contaminated with heavy metals, such as through the type of cookware you use, the tap water you drink and the fillings you have in your teeth. Fortunately, there are natural ways to cleanse your body of these harmful toxins, such as with chlorella. This is an algae found in nature and is oftentimes used in integrative medicine by naturopathic doctors in Arizona.

From the data given of the measured amounts of cadmium given at each stations along Cruddy Creek, there were extremely higher concentration levels, 430 mg/kg dry weight total of cadmium from stations F, G, and H, upstream in comparison to a total combined amount of 315mg/kg dry weight of cadmium from stations A, B, C, D, E, and the reference sites. Thus, the following locations have been identified as potential sources responsible for the distribution of cadmium into Cruddy Creek; Atlas Batteries, Metal Plater, and Pacific Coal & Electric power plant due to their relevant histories and proximities to the increased amounts of cadmium.

Since they are so tightly bound within the cell, an agent must be used with a strong attraction to the toxins to pull them out. That agent is the chemical EDTA. This is a man-made amino acid that is FDA approved for the removal of lead. It has been in use since the 1950s. It is also known to have an affinity for other heavy metals and can pull those out of the cells of the body as well. Once bound to the EDTA, the heavy metals are flushed out through the urine.

Lead is considered as one of the most an extremely toxic metal which can be found anywhere

Copper: Electroplating and metalworking industries discharge large amounts of heavy metals, including copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) ions, in their effluents [Ting-Chu et al. 2009]. Environmental contamination due to copper is caused by mining, printed circuits, metallurgical, fiber production, pipe corrosion and metal plating industries. The other major industries discharging copper in their effluents are paper and pulp, petroleum refining and wood preserving. Agricultural sources such as fertilizers, fungicidal sprays and animal wastes also lead to water pollution due to copper. Copper may be found as a contaminant in food, especially shell fish, liver, mushrooms, nuts and chocolates. Any packaging container using copper material may contaminate

In this paper further information on this heavy metal will be discussed including background information on mercury contamination, analytical techniques used to test for it, its causes and effects, and a case of mercury contamination in Miami.

Mixed contamination of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) is a major environmental and human health concern. The mixture toxicity data on these co-contaminants are important for their risk assessment. In this study, we have determined the mixture toxicity of As, Cd and Pb and B[a]P with As, Cd or Pb in HepG2 cells. The binary mixtures of Cd + As, Cd + Pb and As + Pb and B[a]P + metals (B[a]P + As, B[a]P + Cd and B[a]P + Pb) were evaluated for their interaction on the cytotoxicity using the MTS assay. A full factorial design (4 × 5) was used to determine the interaction toxicity and all the six mixtures showed significant interaction on the cytotoxicity. We further investigated the role of oxidative stress (reactive

There is greater awareness of the issues and hazards of the dumping of chemical waste and there are laws restricting the dumping of this waste. Since many individuals rely on groundwater for drinking water, many of them are drinking contaminated water. Due to this, there are many health risks including, hepatitis, poisoning and cancer when exposed to polluted water. As well, the wildlife can be harmed from the contaminated ground water.

In modern society, computer becomes popular, and people work and study based on computers. However, when these computer gets old and unusable, the electronic wastes would damage our environment hardly. Electronic waste contains a lot of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium which are highly toxic. These metals cause acid leaching which contaminates ecosystems nearby. For example, a CRT( Cathode Ray Tube) monitor can have up to 2.2kg of lead that is poisonous, which can lead to fumes, food contamination, and skin absorption. Also, these heavy metals such as beryllium, cadmium, and lead release chemicals which help to contribute to global warming and create a poor air quality with too much pollution.

In different areas of the world it is found that the presence of arsenic, lead, and cadmium is hazardous to the health of the general population. In Burkina Faso high concentrations of arsenic dominated the groundwaters (BGS). A similar case occurred within California with the existence of lead and cadmium. Similar to Arsenic in the groundworks of Burkina Faso, there was a significantly large amount of lead found in the water system in California affecting the nervous system, kidneys of children (Rios, Michael). Cadmium has also been found in California, because the metal is known to cause cancer and developmental harm there are several laws preventing certain amount of cadmium in drinking water (Monserrat, Laurie).

Arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are naturally occurring substances in the environment. Besides their natural occurrence, manufacturing and industrial activities such as mining, smelting operations, and the storage and disposal of waste from these process results in elevated concentrations of these contaminants in the environment.3

The Water Pollution Acts (1977 and 1990) and the EPA Act 1992 were licenced, which outline the control of discharge of various materials in industrial activities. They enforce industrial companies to use various technologies to remove or recover the metals from wastewater before released to sewer. Most of the companies are unable to treat the waste themselves due to cost effective treatment to remove these metals, therefore they send their wastewater to companies such as RILTA environmental. There are many technologies available for recovery of heavy metals from wastewater such as electrodialysis, ion exchange and reverse osmosis. However these techniques may be expensive and ineffective especially when the metals are present in the wastewater

(Multiple facts in this section are from one source, so citations are towards the end of topics). Do you ever use a smart phone? A remote control for your television? A flashlight? Or perhaps even driven in an all-electric car? All these things have one common trait, they rely on batteries. One of the key components in batteries is Cadmium, a metallic element found in pieces of ore across the globe with over 86% of its entire population used in batteries (“What is Cadmium?”). Pure Cadmium is rare to find, just like iron it is often drilled and mined and then smelted into a pure form. This form of extraction is one of the key ways Cadmium becomes air born and exposed to the environment. I believe that Cadmium is quite dangerous for the same reason that lead exposure is dangerous, it is used in our everyday lives constantly, leaving us in high risk if not handled properly. There are actually quite a few ways someone can be exposed to Cadmium such as through foods like mushrooms, shellfish, cocoa powder, and dried seaweed (“Chemical Properties of Cadmium…”). Cadmium can also be ingested by smoking. The smoking of Tabaco transports large amounts of Cadmium to the lungs where blood then transfers it to the rest of the body increasing the amount of Cadmium that might already be present from Cadmium rich foods. As well as damaging the lungs and blood, Cadmium also damages the liver and kidney. When it is transferred by the blood to the liver, it builds up in the kidneys and

The people around the world have been a realization that waste management systems are important to put in place in industrializes countries to reduce releases of cadmium into the environment.