Health and environmental effects of heavy metals

TLDR

Seafood safety is essential for global development, yet heavy metals in aquatic environments—through distribution, speciation, bioaccumulation, and toxicity—pose significant health risks and mortality stresses to organisms, underscoring the need for safe ecosystems to ensure safe aquaculture products. This study examines heavy metal exposure in aquatic food and its health risks to humans. The authors review the translocation processes of metal toxins into seafood in detail. They recommend management techniques, genetic engineering, and remediation to stabilize aquatic environments.

Abstract

Seafood safety is a critical requirement for sustained global quantitative and qualitative development. In recent years, unintended poisons have damaged human health and food quality. Heavy metals (HMs) distribution, speciation, bioaccumulation, and toxicity evaluation in aquatic settings are at their peak. Safe ecosystems have a significant influence in the possible composition of safe aquaculture products, which serve as the foundation of every food web. HMs eventually impose a number of stresses on the living organisms, contributing to increased mortality. Therefore, this study reflects and explains the exposure of heavy metals to aquatic food as well as the resulting health risks to humans. A more in-depth review on the translocation processes of metal toxins into seafood is provided. Finally, for achieving stability in aquatic environments, management techniques, genetic engineering, and remediation are recommended.