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Metals, common elements exist in every perspective of our lives, brings so many benefits that we couldn't even live without them. Imagine a life without knives or spoons for dining, a life without electricity, or a life without cars or any kind of modern transportation. Performing simple tasks would be miserable without them. However, anything is a double-edged sword. Since we manufacture more metal products for convenience, we have to pay the costs--heavy metal pollution. (Heavy metal pollution, refers to the environmental pollution caused by heavy metals and their compounds. It’s mainly caused by mining, exhaust emissions, sewage irrigation, using heavy metal products and so on). Causing by increased human activities, heavy metal content in the ecosystem rises beyond the normal range, which directly endangers our health, and deteriorates environment quality.

Heavy metal pollution is harder to treat than traditional pollutions by organic compounds. Many organic compounds can be reduced or removed by the physical, chemical or biological purification naturally. Heavy metals, on the other hand, are hard to degrade in the natural environment. Experts have pointed out that the pollution of heavy metals in the soil is irreversible. With a huge amount of heavy metals present in our ecosystem, the problem could be brought to us in various ways. For example, if the heavy metals are added to the sewage, they usually will accumulate in algae and sediments even if the concentration is low. Passing along the food chain, if fish and shellfish swallow them, those heavy metals we have polluted will eventually enter our food chain^[1]. Eventually, causes food poisoning. Heavy metals are poisonous to a broad range of species, including human. It's because Heavy metals tend to "accumulate and thereby disrupt function in vital organs and glands such as the heart, brain, kidneys, bone, liver, etc", as well as, "displacing vital nutritious molecules from their original places" and further disrupt biological functions of organisms. in the organisms' soft tissues, organs, which could be lethal, in toxic amounts^[2]. News^[3] of people been sent to the hospitals because of heavy metal poisoning keeps reminding us how serious and how urgent the issue is. And we crave for a cure.

References

重金属污染. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://baike.baidu.com/item/重金属污染
Singh, R., Gautam, N., Mishra, A., & Gupta, R. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113373/
Letzter, R. (2017, May 03). 1.2 million children likely suffer from lead poisoning in the US - but half are undetected. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/lead-poisoning-states-us-2017-5

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