Heavy Metals in the Danube River in Yugoslavia

Abstract

An evaluation of the potential ecological impact of heavy metals which are not essential for biological communities, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury, clearly illustrates the transpositional problems associated with the by-products of modern society. While some environmental contamination results from the natural leaching of geological formations, the most significant redistribution of toxic trace metals, with the exception of mercury, occurs as a result of societal activities such as mining and fossil fuel combustion. Mercury is continuously evaporating from the Earth’s surfaces and then being washed back to the surfaces through rain and snow; this naturally occurring redistribution of mercury is greater than the redistribution due to societal activities. These materials cannot be easily removed once they are released into the environment. However, they are reactive under certain conditions, and various physical and biological processes (bioaccumulation, biomagnification, etc.) may act to alter their form and distribution.