A Review of Heavy Metal Toxicity, Effects and Methods for Estimating Heavy Metal Concentration in Water

Abstract

Heavy metals are metal ions which acts as carcinogens and causes serious health issues as they produce free radicals and these free radicals cause damage to DNA which eventually leads to cancer. They are non-degradable in nature and responsible for contamination of various natural resources in environment mainly water contamination has become a major problem. Many metal ions such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury are considered as toxic metals. The analysis of these metal ions is necessary and to detect these metal ions, several detection methods such as electrochemical biosensors, CNT’s, silver nanoparticles have been developed. In this paper, the toxicity and health effects of several heavy metals and their role in causing of oxidative stress have been summarized. Also, various heavy metal detection methods have been listed.