Abstract
Heavy metal pollution is a growing environmental and public health concern globally. The trend is attributable to the rise in concentrations of the contaminants in the environment in modern day propagated by geogenic and mainly anthropic activities. Once in the environment, the metals bioaccumulate and cause toxicity in living systems. In this chapter, heavy metal chemistry was studied and their ability to induce toxicity in the environment and living organisms discussed. Non-essential metals including cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead, and the metalloid arsenic, among others, were discussed. They were found to induce neurotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, hepatoxicity, skin toxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity in living systems. Specific toxicity was dependent on the type of metal, its bioavailability and exposure time, where toxicity spread via a variety of exposure routes.