1. Environmental toxicology emphasizes the difference from traditional toxicology in which pure compounds of interest are added to purified diets, or injected into the test animals. When the objective is to study the fate and effects of trace elements in the environment, knowledge of the speciation of the elements and their physico-chemical forms is important. 2. Cadmium salts such as the sulfides, carbonates or oxides, are practically insoluble in water. However, these can be converted to water-soluble salts in nature under the influence of oxygen and acids. Chronic exposure to Cd is associated with renal toxicity in humans once a critical body burden is reached. 3. The solubility of As(III) oxide in water is fairly low, but high in either acid or alkali. In water, arsenic is usually in the form of the arsenate or arsenite. As(III) is systemically more poisonous than the As(V), and As(V) is reduced to the As(III) form before exerting any toxic effects. Organic arsenicals also exert their toxic effects in vivo in animals by first metabolizing to the trivalent arsenoxide form. Some methyl arsenic compounds, such as di- and trimethylarsines, occur naturally as a consequence of biological activity. The toxic effect of arsenite can be potentiated by dithiols, while As has-a protective effect against the toxicity of a variety of forms of Se in several species. 4. Selenium occurs in several oxidation states and many selenium analogues of organic sulfur compounds exist in nature. Selenium in selenate form occurs in alkaline soils, where it is soluble and easily available to plants. Selenite binds tightly to iron and aluminum oxides and thus is quite insoluble in soils. Hydrogen selenide is a very toxic gas at room temperature. The methylated forms of Se are much less toxic for the organism than selenite. However, the methylated Se derivatives have strong synergistic toxicity with other minerals such as arsenic. 5. Aquatic organisms absorb and retain Hg in the tissues, as methylmercury, although most of the environmental Hg to which they are exposed is inorganic. The methylmercury in fish arises from the bacterial methylation of inorganic Hg. Methylmercury in the human diet is almost completely absorbed into the bloodstream. The nervous system is the principal target tissue affected by methylmercury in adult human beings, while kidney is the critical organ following the ingestion of Hg(II) salts.
