Heavy metal pollution is a globally recognized environmental issue, threatening human health. Increasing population and high demand for food lead to excessive release of various metal(loid)s into the environment, e.g., soil and water that eventually contaminate the food crops. However, their adverse effects on human health are usually dependent on the metal(loid)s speciation. For example, the inorganic arsenic is more toxic than organic ones, while within the inorganic arsenic, As(III) has a higher toxicity than As(V). Given that, speciation assessment of metal(loid)s in soils, food plants, human body fluid, hair, nails, or other associated biological tissues is pivotal to understand key aspects of heavy metals’ human health risks such as their bioavailability, species toxicity, as well as various biological responses. Investigations in this field contain multidisciplinary approaches through the analytical combination of experimental and computational techniques.
Trace metals in natural environments, including soil and water, and food crops, as well as in biological matrices containing a large variety of species, with variable concentrations and features, is particularly challenging to be accurately detected. Knowledge of speciation is of utmost relevance in defining risk assessment of toxic metals, in their excretion from the human body in case of overexposure. Elucidation of the composition and the speciation of metal(loid)s could be more helpful for scientists to accurately assess their human health risks. Given that, the aim of this research topic focuses on the state-of-the-art techniques and (or) methods for speciation analysis in soils, waters, crops, human-derived samples, as well as other environmental and biological matrices.
We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review, and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:
• Cutting-edge techniques for assessing human health risk of heavy metal species
• HPLC-ICP-MS, LA-ICP-MS, ICP-OES, and other metal speciation analysis methods
• New analytical methods and techniques for tracing soil and crop heavy metal(loid)s
• Human bioaccessibility and bioavailability analyses of different metal species in foods
• Innovative chemometric approaches for metal speciation analysis
• Novel optical, electrochemical, and chemical sensors or biosensors for metal speciation analysis
Heavy metal pollution is a globally recognized environmental issue, threatening human health. Increasing population and high demand for food lead to excessive release of various metal(loid)s into the environment, e.g., soil and water that eventually contaminate the food crops. However, their adverse effects on human health are usually dependent on the metal(loid)s speciation. For example, the inorganic arsenic is more toxic than organic ones, while within the inorganic arsenic, As(III) has a higher toxicity than As(V). Given that, speciation assessment of metal(loid)s in soils, food plants, human body fluid, hair, nails, or other associated biological tissues is pivotal to understand key aspects of heavy metals’ human health risks such as their bioavailability, species toxicity, as well as various biological responses. Investigations in this field contain multidisciplinary approaches through the analytical combination of experimental and computational techniques.
Trace metals in natural environments, including soil and water, and food crops, as well as in biological matrices containing a large variety of species, with variable concentrations and features, is particularly challenging to be accurately detected. Knowledge of speciation is of utmost relevance in defining risk assessment of toxic metals, in their excretion from the human body in case of overexposure. Elucidation of the composition and the speciation of metal(loid)s could be more helpful for scientists to accurately assess their human health risks. Given that, the aim of this research topic focuses on the state-of-the-art techniques and (or) methods for speciation analysis in soils, waters, crops, human-derived samples, as well as other environmental and biological matrices.
We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review, and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:
• Cutting-edge techniques for assessing human health risk of heavy metal species
• HPLC-ICP-MS, LA-ICP-MS, ICP-OES, and other metal speciation analysis methods
• New analytical methods and techniques for tracing soil and crop heavy metal(loid)s
• Human bioaccessibility and bioavailability analyses of different metal species in foods
• Innovative chemometric approaches for metal speciation analysis
• Novel optical, electrochemical, and chemical sensors or biosensors for metal speciation analysis
