It’s time to replace the term “heavy metals” with “potentially toxic elements” when reporting environmental research

Olivier Pourret, Andrew Hursthouse

    Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

    127 Citations (Scopus)
    86 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Even if the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is relatively well defined, some controversial terms are in still in use. Indeed, the term “Heavy Metal” is a common term used for decades in Sciences, and even more in Environmental Sciences particularly in studies of pollution impacts. The use of the term appears to increase, we emphasise the relevance of the use of the term “Potentially Toxic Element(s)” needs more explicit endorsement and we illustrate the chemical elements which need to be considered.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number4446
    Number of pages6
    JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
    Volume16
    Issue number22
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 13 Nov 2019

    Keywords

    • Heavy metals
    • Contaminants
    • Elements
    • Toxic

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