Effect of non-essential heavy metals on human health

Abstract

Heavy metals are increasingly becoming relevant to human health due their increasing concentrations in the environment and numerous food chains. Excessive exposure to heavy metals, including essential heavy metals, can have serious consequences on human health, including the development of various cancers. Exposure to heavy metals is hard to avoid due to their prevalence in our food chains; thus, it of crucial importance to understand the outcomes heavy metals may have on human health,as well as their contribution to disease aetiology and pathogenesis. In this chapter, the effects of a multitude of heavy metals on human health are discussed through a concise review of recent studies which investigate the contributions of heavy metals to human health and disease.