Do lead and chrome decompose into harmless byproducts?
Environmental pollution brought on by xenobiotics and other related recalcitrant compounds have recently been identified as a major risk to both human health and the natural environment. Due to their toxicity and non-biodegradability, a wide range of ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Pollution of the environment, freshwater, and topsoil has evolved from global industrialization. Water quality has worsened as a result of human activity, such as due to mining and ultimate removal of toxic metal effluents from steel mills, battery companies, and electricity generation, posing major environmental concerns. Effluents like petroleum, polythenes, and trace metals harm the environment. Heavy metals are pollutants that exist in nature in the Earth’s crust and are difficult to decompose. They exist as ores in rocks and are recovered as minerals. High-level exposures can release heavy metals into the environment. Once in the environment, they remain toxic for much longer [
1]. Many of these pollutants are mutagenic to both humans along with their surroundings. Absorbing heavy metals accumulates in the brain, liver, and kidney. Other effects on animals include cancer, nervous system damage, stunted growth, and even death [
2]. Heavy metals in soils reduce food quality and quantity by inhibiting nutrient absorption, plant growth, and physiological metabolic processes. Metal-contaminated soils are being remedied using chemical, biological, and physical methods. However, physicochemical methods produce a lot of waste and pollution, so they are not valued [
3]. Bioremediation is a cost-effective and practical solution for removing environmental contaminants [
4]. Plant growth promotion, insect control, soil conservation, nutrient recycling, and pollutant reduction are all key functions of soil microorganisms [
5]. Bioremediation has come a long way in terms of efficiency, cost, and social acceptability [
6]. Bioremediation research has largely focused on bacterial processes, which have numerous applications. Archaea are known to play a role in bioremediation in many applications where bacteria are involved. Many hostile situations have degraded, requiring bioremediation. Microbes can also assist in the elimination of pollutants from hyperthermal, acidic, hypersaline, or basic industrial waste [
7,
8]. Recent research suggests that using more than one living organism will improve the efficiency and results, and allow for greater microbial diversity in bioremediation [
8,
9]. Many researchers employed bioremediation technology for the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants [
10,
11,
12]. In a study, bioremediation technology was used for the treatment of various pollutants, including organophosphate pesticides .
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