Book Description

This book covers cadmium contamination of soil and plants, its sources, acute and long-term impacts on the environment and human health, and overall challenges posed by the global poisoning issue. Cadmium is among the elements that have been most broadly used by man over time, which has led to extensive pollution of surface soils, mainly associated with the mining and smelting of the metal and the addition of organic cadmium compounds to petrol. The release of cadmium into the atmosphere from various high-temperature processes has also led to surface contamination on a regional and even global scale. Cadmium is particularly firmly bound to humic matter in organic-rich soil and to iron oxides in mineral soil and is rather immobile in the soil unless present at very high concentrations. Plants grown on cadmium-rich soils incorporate cadmium, thus increasing the concentration of cadmium in crop plants. Cadmium thus enters the food chain through the consumption of plant material, which poses important health risks to humans and animals. In this book, readers will find out about the latest mitigation strategies, including a multi-disciplinary approach to address cadmium contamination. Recent methods in cadmium detoxification, speciation, and molecular mechanisms are included, and the book offers the knowledge required for efficient risk assessment, prevention, and countermeasure. Divided into 3 parts, this book brings together expert contributions on cadmium toxicity. In the first part, readers will find out about the different sources and distribution of cadmium in soil and plant ecosystems. The second part of the book outlines the health risks linked to cadmium toxicity, and in the final part, readers will discover sustainable cadmium toxicity mitigation strategies and potential applications of recent biological technology in providing solutions. This book is a valuable resource for students, academics, researchers, and environmental professionals doing fieldwork on cadmium contamination throughout the world.