Health and environmental effects of heavy metals

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. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

Heavy metal contamination in seafood poses a threat to human health, requiring in-depth research and effective management to ensure the stability of aquatic ecosystems.