Some Considerations Regarding the Presence of Heavy Metals in Soil and the Human Body

Abstract

Until now, there have been laborious researches regarding the presence of heavy metals in environmental factors but their effects have been studied less in the bio-geo-chemical circuits, respectively within the local trophic chains and the regional trophic networks. Naturally, the metals existing in the earth's crust enter the bio-geo-chemical cycles. In the cells of higher organisms, as we know, there is a fragile balance between the amounts of metals needed for catalytic processes and toxic doses to organisms. However, this balance is dependent not only on the concentration and variety of metals in the Earth's crust but also on the microbiological activity of environmental factors, responsible for the transformation of these metals into complex chemical substances that affect more or less the organisms, respectively their enzymatic activity. The vital-necessary, but also the non-vital mineral substances in their mobile forms, which may at one time be toxic to organisms, are significantly pushed out by anthropic activities into trophic chains. They are present in environmental factors such as soil, air, water, reach the body of plants and the body of animals. Plants and animals can bioaccumulate and concentrate in their bodies several chemical elements in the environment, regardless of their origin, which is then easily transferred through food circuits into the human body. Thus, through local trophic chains, respectively through regional trophic networks, contamination of the human body takes place. This requires the need for a measure of most likely high complexity to mitigate the effects with a strong impact on the health status, including that of the human psychic. In severe cases of contamination, behavioral manifestations, especially among the vulnerable population, are proven.