Imbued with metals

-- Industrial advancement has no doubt improved the standard of living of human beings, but in the process the crucial environmental balance established by nature over a millenium has been inadvertantly disturbed. The concentration and distribution pattern of metals within the ecosystem is especially important. Metals are a unique class of toxicants, since they cannot be broken down to non-toxic forms. Once the ecosystem is contaminated by them, they remain a potential threat for many years. There is rising evidence linking many diseases to the environmental factors which are injurious to biosystems. Most of these factors are anthropogenic in nature and among these, human activity concerning heavy metals constitutes a major health hazard.