From contamination to detection: The growing threat of heavy metals

Heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic are environmental pollutants that accumulate in ecosystems and pose significant health risks to humans and wildlife, primarily through food chain contamination where plants absorb heavy metals, affecting their growth and threatening consumer health. Cognitive and cardiovascular functions are particularly affected by exposure to heavy metals even at low concentrations through the induction of oxidative stress. Various analytical techniques are used in measuring heavy metals in different environmental and biological samples. The atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) offers low cost, simplicity, and portability but lacks sensitivity for certain metals. Although more sensitive, the high cost of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) may limit laboratory accessibility. The inductively coupled plasma with atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) is known for its broad dynamic linear range and ability to identify minute variations in concentration. Atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) is considered a powerful tool for quantifying heavy metals due to its high sensitivity, low detection limits, and wide linear range. The current article reviews heavy metal pollution's impact on health and spectrometric techniques for the detection of these contaminants. This may help efforts of international, and regional policies towards preventing this health hazard problem.