Learn how to reduce the impact of environmental toxins on brain development, functioning, and health. The human brain is a marvelously complex organ that has evolved great new capabilities over the past 250,000 years. During most of that period, daily life was vastly different from our lives today. Exercise was not optional - one literally had to run for one's life, livelihood, and sustenance. The Stone Age diet was not a fad, but the only food available. Periods of fasting arose from food scarcity, and hence the earliest keto-diet was commonplace. Life changed greatly with the advent of agriculture and industry. Diseases that were previously unknown or uncommon began to surface as by-products of civilization's advance. Changes in our ways of living have altered the nature of illness as well as its diagnosis and treatment. From the 1970s to the present, tens of thousands of chemicals with applications in all aspects of our lives have grown more than 40-fold. Exposure to these new substances has impacted many aspects of our health, especially the delicate parts of the brain and nervous system. In parallel with the changes in our environment, we have seen the growth of brain disorders including Alzheimer's Disease and autism in previously unimaginable ways. Here, Arnold Eiser elucidates some features of diseases affecting the nervous system that are increasing in incidence with a focus on those disorders that appear related to environmental toxins that modern life has introduced. He takes readers behind the scenes of the science itself to discover the human stories involved in the discovery and management of these illnesses. Offering insights from a variety of scientific disciplines, Eiser clearly and succinctly illustrates the impact of toxins on our brains and how we might better protect ourselves from negative outcomes. With interviews from leading authorities in the field of neuroscience, environmental toxicology, integrative medicine, neurology, immunology, geriatrics, and microbiology (re the gut microbiome), this book offers a robust understanding of the complex threats to our brains, and the healthy brain's dependence upon many other systems within our bodies. This is a voyage of discovery into the science, history, and human struggle regarding disorders challenging the brain as well as their possible prevention.

The Exposome: A New Paradigm for the Environment and Health, Second Edition, is a thoroughly expanded and updated edition of The Exposome: A Primer, the first book dedicated to the topic. This new release outlines the purpose and scope of this emerging field of study, its practical applications, and how it complements a broad range of disciplines. The book contains sections on -omics-based technologies, newer detection methods, managing and integrating exposome data (including maps, models, computation and systems biology), and more. Both students and scientists in toxicology, environmental health, epidemiology and public health will benefit from this rigorous, yet readable, overview. This updated edition includes a more in-depth examination of the exposome, including full references, further reading and thought questions.

This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being. The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem. The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.

This volume gathers the latest advances and innovations in the field of structural health monitoring, as presented at the 8th Civil Structural Health Monitoring Workshop (CSHM-8), held on March 31-April 2, 2021. It discusses emerging challenges in civil SHM and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems for civil engineering applications. The contributions cover a diverse range of topics, including applications of SHM to civil structures and infrastructures, innovative sensing solutions for SHM, data-driven damage detection techniques, nonlinear systems and analysis techniques, influence of environmental and operational conditions, aging structures and infrastructures in hazardous environments, and SHM in earthquake prone regions. Selected by means of a rigorous peer-review process, they will spur novel research directions and foster future multidisciplinary collaborations.

< p=""> This monograph is based on pollution control technologies available to deal with water and air pollution. It includes removal of variety of pollutants including arsenic, chromium, uranium, pesticides and arsenic from water using adsorption technique. In addition, this book deals with the sampling and removal of microplastics using various techniques. The contents also focus on the role of membrane technology in water and wastewater treatment, and particulate matter air pollution and its control techniques. This volume will be a useful guide for researchers, academics and scientists. ^

This book presents research findings and conclusions that has been developed as algorithms or intelligent new methods solving problems in the fields of air pollution, climate and health, natural hazards and risks, water resources, human activities and management and informatics, remote sensing, high-performance computing and GIS for environmental monitoring and management. Environmental protection and disaster risk topics are challenging fields, that scientific world is trying to address as much as it can. Earthquakes, floods, fires, droughts, blizzards, dust storms, natural releases of toxic gases and liquids, diseases and other environmental variations affect hundreds of millions of people each year. Many disaster events are triggered by human activities. Dealing with these problems will require systems thinking and integrating multidisciplinary science. Actions in these directions are taken more and more in the recent years by political bodies, NGOs and scientific groups trying to find sustainable solutions for the future generations. Every point of view matter when it comes to our global home - The Planet Earth.

Agriculture is one of the oldest and most global human enterprises, and as the world struggles with sustainable practices and policies, agricultural chemistry has a clear role to play. This book highlights the ways in which science in agriculture is helping to achieve global sustainability in the 21st century, and demonstrates that this science can and should be a leading contributor in discussion on environmental science and chemistry. The four drivers of this subject are presented, those being economic, environmental, regulatory and scientific, and help showcase agricultural chemistry as a dynamic subject that is contributing to this necessity of global sustainability in the 21st century.

Plant diseases are a serious threat to food production. This unique volume provides the fundamental knowledge and practical use of B.subtilis as a promising biocontrol agent. In order to replace chemical pesticides, one possibility is microbial pesticides using safe microbes. Bacillus subtilis is one of several candidates. Screening of the bacterium, the application of plant tests, clarification of its suppressive mechanism to plant pathogens and engineering aspects of suppressive peptides production are presented here. The author illustrates how B. subtilis is far more advantageous than, for example, Pseudomonas in biocontrol and can be considered as an useful candidate. Features: Bacterium B. subtilis suppresses many plant pathogens and is a biocontrol agent to replace chemical pesticides The book presents the bacterium's suppressive mechanism to plant pathogens, and engineering aspects of suppressive peptides production Biological control of plant disease plays an important role in sustainable agricultural production practices and is expected to replace agricultural chemicals

This edited volume provides a biosemiotic analysis of the ecological relationship between food and medicine. Drawing on the origins of semiotics in medicine, this collection proposes innovative ways of considering aliments and treatments. Considering the ever-evolving character of our understanding of meaning-making in biology, and considering the keen popular interest in issues relating to food and medicines - fueled by an increasing body of interdisciplinary knowledge - the contributions here provide diverse insights and arguments into the larger ecology of organisms' engagement with and transformation through taking in matter. Bodies interpret molecules, enzymes, and alkaloids they intentionally and unintentionally come in contact with according to their pre-existing receptors. But their receptors are also changed by the experience. Once the body has identified a particular substance, it responds by initiating semiotic sequences and negotiations that fulfill vital functions for the organism at macro-, meso-, and micro-scales. Human abilities to distill and extract the living world into highly refined foods and medicines, however, have created substances far more potent than their counterparts in our historical evolution. Many of these substances also lack certain accompanying proteins, enzymes, and alkaloids that otherwise aid digestion or protect against side-effects in active extracted chemicals. Human biology has yet to catch up with human inventions such as supernormal foods and medicines that may flood receptors, overwhelming the body's normal satiation mechanisms. This volume discusses how biosemioticians can come to terms with these networks of meaning, providing a valuable and provocative compendium for semioticians, medical researchers and practitioners, sociologists, cultural theorists, bioethicists and scholars investigating the interdisciplinary questions stemming from food and medicine.

Details Thomas Trotter's important contributions, as a naval surgeon and after, to the eradication of scurvy and typhus, to the study of addiction, and to improved health and safety in mines. Thomas Trotter, after studying medicine at Edinburgh, began his naval career as a surgeon's mate in 1779 and saw continuous service up to the peace of 1802, rising as a result of great abilities and the right patronage to become Physician to the Channel Fleet, and being present at the great battles of Dogger Bank in 1781 and the Glorious First of June in 1794. As Physician to the Channel Fleet, he was a major player in the conquest of scurvy and the control of typhus and smallpox in the navy. After the peace he settled in Newcastle where he produced pioneering work on alcoholism and neurosis, as a result of which he is regarded as one of the founders of the field of addiction studies. This book provides an intimate account of naval life in the great age of sail from the perspective of a surgeon, describing the impact of Enlightenment ideas and new medical techniques, and showing how improved health was a crucial factor in making possible the British fleet's great victories in this period. BRIAN VALE is a maritime historian, whose books include Independence or Death: British sailors and Brazilian Independence (Tauris 1996), A Frigate of King George, Life and Duty on a British Man-of-War (Tauris 2001) and The Audacious Admiral Cochrane (Conway 2004). GRIFFITH EDWARDS, Emeritus Professor at King's College, London, is one of the country's leading experts on addiction. His publications include Alchohol: the Ambiguous Molecule (Penguin 2000) and Matters of Substance (Penguin 2005).

The second edition of a bestseller, Soil and Water Chemistry: An Integrative Approach maintains the balanced perspective that made the first edition a hugely popular textbook. The second edition includes new figures and tables, new chapters, and expanded exercises in each chapter. It covers topics including soil chemical environment, soil minerals, soil organic matter, cation exchange, oxidation-reduction, mineral weathering and solubility, surface chemistry and adsorption reactions, acidity and salinity in soil materials, and chemical thermodynamics applied to soil systems. See What's New in the Second Edition: Extensive section that details the sources, speciation, and the general behavior of elements in soils Expanded section on crystal structure, updated phyllosillcates classifications scheme, inclusion of sepiolite-palygorskite group, and expanded x-ray diffraction section Discussion of surface runoff losses of phosphorus from soil and description of the inductivity coupled argon plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) analytical technique for determining elemental concentrations in soil solution Coverage of the influence of redox processes on the soil chemistry of nonelectroactive elements Description of the electrokinetic phenomenon and investigation of the influence of temperature on adsorption Expanded discussion on the application of chemical thermodynamics to soil systems A solutions manual is available upon qualifying course adoption. Still one of the only texts on this subject, this book provides a comprehensive, modern, and balanced coverage of the chemical and mineralogical characteristics of soils and their chemical processes. It contains more information and topic coverage than required for an average, single-semester course. This extensive coverage is by design, giving you the latitude to pick your own essential topics while providing additional information or a more advanced treatment when needed. Figures and tables make the information accessible and each problem has been tested and is relevant and doable, but asks more of students than to simply generate a number. This format allows students to understand the concepts and recognize that their computations have physical meaning.

We are witnessing an unprecedented global outbreak of COVID-19, which has been devastating in its consequences. Beyond the acute health hazard, the pandemic has carried with it other threats for mankind associated with the human economy, society, culture, psychology and politics. Amidst these multifarious dimensions of the pandemic, it is high time for global solidarity to save humankind.Human society, its ambient environment, the process of socio-economic development, and politics and power - all are drivers to establish the world order. All these parameters are intimately and integrally related. The interconnections of these three driving forces have a significant bearing on life, space and time. In parallel, the interrelationship between all these drivers is dynamic, and they are changed drastically with time and space. The statistics serve to align the thought, based on which social scientists need to understand the prevailing equation to project the unforeseen future. The trajectory of the future world helps in planning and policymaking with a scientific direction.The practitioners of all academic disciplines under the umbrella of the social sciences need a common platform to exchange ideas that may be effective in the sustainable management of the crisis and the way forward after it is mitigated. This book provides multidisciplinary contributions for expressing the solidarity of academic knowledge to fight against this global challenge. It is crucial that there should be an on-going discussion and exchange of ideas, not only from the perspective of the current times but keeping in view the preparedness for unforeseen post-COVID crises as well.

Stress is such an over-used word that it is at time difficult to define its core features. When is an environment stressful? What does a stressful environment do to the brain and to the body? What are the biological mechanisms by which a stressor affects us? How does stress contributes to the onset and the progression of mental disorders? How do the effects of stress change over the life-time of an individual? These are just some of the overarching questions addressed by this book, thanks to the contribution of some of the world leading experts on the neurobiology of stress at the pre-clinical and clinical levels. Topics include current advances on the neurobiology of stress on various neurobiological systems such as immune, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, neurotransmitter (glutamate, noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin and endocannabinoid), neuropeptides, cognition and emotional processing as well as in utero and early postnatal effects. The clinical chapters deal with the relationship of stress and mental disorders such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance abuse and addiction, dementia and age-related cognitive decline as well as resilience to stress. Thus, this book brings together some of the most updated and authoritative views on the effects of stress of brain and behavior.

Research now shows us that long-term activation of the stress cycle can have a hazardous, even lethal, effect on the body, increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease, depression, cancer, and other illnesses. This new edition of an award-winning book presents cutting-edge research on the effects of stress.

Edited by one of the world's authorities in stress management, occupational psychology, and occupational medicine, Handbook of Stress Medicine and Health, Second Edition offers a completely revised and updated look at the different types of stress, including their characteristics, symptoms, duration, and treatment approaches. The text proposes a generic theory on stress and health and explores the relationship of stress to a variety of health outcomes, including heart disease, cancer, mental health, burnout, and complications of the endocrine and immune systems. It addresses the link between stress and personality, and discusses the impact of social support on various health conditions. The final chapters deal with stress and its consequences, such as the emotional processing of traumatic events, dealing with stress in families and in chronic disease, and coping with stress in the workplace.

With contributions from the foremost leaders in the field, this authoritative book evaluates a wide range of psychosocial factors that contribute to many of today's major illnesses. It also proposes strategies for prevention and management, which will hopefully encourage future research into the reduction of stress.

This volume provides a unique collection of contributions addressing both the 'too much' and 'too little' sides of the nitrogen story. Building on analyses started at the 6th International Nitrogen Conference, Kampala, the book explores the idea of 'just enough nitrogen': sufficient for sustainable food production, but not so much as to lead to unsustainable pollution and climate problems. The range of nitrogen threats examined, solutions evaluated and science-policy analyses presented here has provided the foundation to agree the 'Kampala Statement-for-Action on Nitrogen in Africa and Globally,' as reported in this volume. Humanity today faces unprecedented challenges: How to feed a growing population? How to reduce air pollution, water pollution and climate change? How to handle regional differences in an era of increasing globalization? These questions are at the heart of this edited volume which examines the multi-dimensional nature of the global nitrogen challenge. While humans have massively altered the nitrogen cycle, the consequences have become polarized. Some regions have too much nitrogen, associated with pollution and wasteful use of a valuable resource, while other regions have too little nitrogen, leading to constraints on food production and depletion of soil nutrient stocks. The volume provides a unique collection of contributions addressing both the 'too much' and 'too little' sides of the nitrogen story. Building on analyses started at the 6th International Nitrogen Conference, Kampala, the book explores the idea of 'just enough nitrogen': sufficient for sustainable food production, but not so much as to lead to unsustainable pollution and climate problems. The range of nitrogen threats examined, solutions evaluated and science-policy analyses presented here has provided the foundation to agree the 'Kampala Statement-for-Action on Nitrogen in Africa and Globally,' as reported in this volume. Together, the contributions in this book are now informing actions by the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) in working with the United Nations Environment Programme and others to establish the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS). A key outcome has been to catalyse development of the first Resolution on Sustainable Nitrogen Management, as adopted by the fourth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA/EA.4/Res.14). The work is written for researchers and policy makers and all those interested in seeing how sustainable nitrogen management can contribute to meeting many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This book is about doing innovative research to achieve sustainable and equitable change in people's health and well-being through improved interactions with the environment. It presents experiences from the field of ecosystem approaches to health (or ecohealth research) and some insights and lessons learned. It builds on previous literature, notably Forget (1997), Forget and Lebel (2001), Lebel (2003), and Waltner-Toews et al. (2008). Through case-studies and other contributions by researchers supported by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the book presents evidence of real changes in conditions of people, their health, and the ecosystems that support them. These changes were derived from applications of an ecosystem approach to health in developing regions of the world. The book also illustrates the resulting body of applied, participatory, and action research that improved health and environmental management in developing countries and, in many cases, influenced policies and practices.

In light of the novel corona virus outbreak in December 2019 and its subsequent impact on entire world as a global pandemic, the book attempts to provide integrated risk assessment on Covid -19 like pandemics, as well as to understand the societal, environment and economic impact of the outbreak in various sectors of development. It covers fundamental factors of global disease outbreaks and its coverage as major disaster through the complexity and severity of consequences, illustrating the dimensions of low frequency high intensity disasters. It brings together broad range of topics including basic concepts, isolation measure, role of governance and key technical advancements for containing the diseases. In addition, it also covers resilience analysis towards the impacts such outbreaks have on bio-diversity, ecosystem services and agricultural food production. It defines key exit strategies from the lessons learned and success stories of historical disease outbreaks. The book is presented in four parts, where part 1 familiarizes with fundamentals; part 2 focuses on integrated risk assessments; part 3 focuses on various measures and strategies of resilience; and part 4 suggests key lessons and recommendations. The book is a useful reading reference for scientific community, policy makers and professionals across the domains of health, environment, disasters and sustainable development. Book is specifically beneficial for postgraduate students, researchers, planners and field professionals.

This book introduces flood inundation area and flood risks assessment based on a comprehensive monitoring system using remote sensing and geographic information system technologies. Taking the 2011 flood disaster of Ayutthaya in Thailand as an example, it presents a flood intrusion zone identification method based on remote sensing technology, spatial information technology and geographic information system for flood disaster monitoring and early warning system. It introduces the study area and data, vegetation index, improved support vector machine and flood intrusion zone identification method. It also analyzes the flood remote sensing parameters and waterborne diseases, method of risk assessment of waterborne disease outbreak, waterborne disease outbreak risk monitoring based on backpropagation neural network and its expert system. It not only promotes a new interdisciplinary approach both in public health and space information technology, but also greatly supports decision makers in disaster reduction.

This book provides up-to-date information on the state of the art in applications of biotechnological and microbiological tools for protecting the environment. Written by leading international experts, it discusses potential applications of biotechnological and microbiological techniques in solid waste management, wastewater treatment, agriculture, energy and environmental health. This first volume of the book "Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology," covers three main topics: Solid waste management, Agriculture utilization and Water treatment technology, exploring the latest developments from around the globe regarding applications of biotechnology and microbiology for converting wastes into valuable products and at the same time reducing the environmental pollution resulting from disposal. Wherever possible it also includes real-world examples. Further, it offers advice on which procedures should be followed to achieve satisfactory results, and provides insights that will promote the transition to the sustainable utilization of various waste products.

This book chiefly focuses on environmental flow, water pollution and water quality. Several chapters also cover water treatment technologies and management. In today's context, climate change and climate variability are important issues in the water sector, which is called upon to develop adaptation strategies to cope with their negative impacts. Human health depends upon the quality of water used for drinking and irrigation purposes. These core issues are discussed and addressed in several chapters. The book explores the impact of climate change on water resources and considers various climatological scenarios. In this regard, it carries out a trend analysis and compares the performance of various Global Climate Models (GCMs). Further, it conducts a water quality analysis and water quality mapping so as to provide information on the most vulnerable areas in the context of water quality. Emerging pollutants, generated from paper mills, are identified in order to choose an appropriate treatment technology. Bioremediation techniques are included for the characterization of improved water quality parameters. The book also presents a low-cost treatment technology for fluoride removal, which can help water managers ensure potable water to stakeholders. In terms of maintaining river ecology in the downstream areas of water resources project sites, the book provides a number of case studies on assessment of environmental flows. Advanced treatment technologies that can be highly advantageous for removing water pollutants are presented. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for academics, water resources practitioners, scientists, water managers, environmentalists, administrators, NGOs, researchers and students who are involved in water management with a main focus on water pollution, the environment, climate change and health.

It is now more than ten years since Dr. Alec Jeffreys (now Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, FRS) reported in Nature that the investigation of certain minisatellite regions in the human genome could produce what he termed DNA fingerprints and provide useful information in the fields of paternity testing and forensic analysis. Since that time we have witnessed a revolution in the field of forensic identification. A total change of technology, from serological or electrophoretic analysis of protein polymorphisms to direct investigation of the underlying DNA polymorphisms has occurred in a short space of time. In addition, the evolution and development of the DNA systems themselves has been rapid and spectacular. In the last decade we have progressed from the multilocus DNA fing- prints, through single locus systems based on the same Southern blot RFLP technology, to a host of systems based on the PCR technique. These include Allele Specific Oligonucleotide (ASO)-primed systems detected by dot blots, the "binary" genotypes produced by mapping variations within VNTR repeats demonstrated by minisatellite variant repeat (MVR) analysis, and yet other fragment-length polymorphisms in the form of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci. Hand in hand with the increasing range of systems available has been the development of new instrumentation to facilitate their analysis and allow us to explore the possibilities of high volume testing in the form of mass scre- ing and offender databases.

This book focuses on probiotics and gut microbiota, as well as their roles in alleviating the toxicity of various environmental pollutants, presenting the latest research findings and explaining advanced research methods and tools. At the same time, it offers suggestions for future research directions. Further, the book introduces readers to the concept of gut remediation, a potential approach to reducing environmental-pollutant toxicity in vivo, based on modulation of gut microbiota using probiotic supplements. Lastly it provides suggestions for further reading.

Air pollution is an alarming problem, not only in terms of air quality, but also in relation to health issues. Toxic air pollutant concentrations produce harmful impacts on plant health and human health. Further, though there are various sources of air pollution, anthropogenic and biogenic sources are becoming increasingly problematic. A number of control methods have been applied to reduce the air pollutant concentrations so that their global environmental burden on plants as well as humans can be mitigated. However, as confirmed in numerous reports and studies, their concentrations continue to be very high and everyday cases related to air pollution have become exponentially high not only in developing countries but also in developed countries. In plants, toxic air quality has various adverse effects, including biochemical and physiological disorders, chronic diseases and/or lower yields. In humans, air pollutants affect the body's metabolism and immune system, lungs and central nervous system. This book provides an essential overview of air pollution, its impacts on plant and human health, and potential control strategies. The respective chapters cover general monitoring and characterization techniques for air pollutants, air quality modelling applications, plant and human health effects, risk assessment, and air pollution control policy. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable and unique resource for students of Environmental Science, Biological Science, Medical Science and Agriculture; and for environmental consultants, researchers and other professionals whose work involves air quality, plant and human related research.

Microbial or biological degradation has long been the subject of active concern, and the rapid expansion and growing sophistication of various industries in the last century has significantly increased the volume and complexity of toxic residues of wastes. These can be remediated by plants and microbes, either natural origin or adapted for a specific purpose, in a process known as bioremediation. The interest in microbial biodegradation of pollutants has intensified in recent years in an attempt to find sustainable ways to clean contaminated environments. These bioremediation and biotransformation methods take advantage of the tremendous microbial catabolic diversity to degrade, transform or accumulate a variety of compounds, such as hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polaromatic hydrocarbons pharmaceutical substances, radionuclides and metals. Unlike conventional methods, bioremediation does not physically disturb the site. This book describes the basic principles of biodegradation and shows how these principles are related to bioremediation. Authored by leading, international environmental microbiologists, it discusses topics such as aerobic biodegradation, microbial degradation of pollutants, and microbial community dynamics. It provides valuable insights into how biodegration processes work and can be utilised for pollution abatement, and as such appeals to researchers and postgraduate students as well as experts in the field of bioremediation.

Heavy metals can be emitted into environment by both natural and anthropogenic sources, mainly mining and industrial activity. Human exposure occurs through all environmental media. Infants are more susceptible to the adverse effects of exposure. Increasing attention is now being paid to the mental development of children exposed to heavy metals. The purpose of this book is to evaluate the existing knowledge on intellectual impairment in children exposed to heavy metals in their living environment and to identify the research needs in order to obtain a clearer picture of the situation in countries and regions at risk, in which the economy is closely related to metallurgy and heavy metals emission, and to recommend a strategy for human protection. In greater detail the main objectives could be formulated as follows: to review the principal sources of single, and complex mixtures of, heavy metal pollutants in the environment; to identify suitable methodology for chemical analyses in the environment and in humans; to evaluate the existing methods for measuring mental impairment, including their reliability and validity; to recommend a standard testing protocol to be used in future research; to assess the future role of environmental heavy metal pollution in countries and regions at risk and its effects on children's neurological development; to recommend a prevention strategy for protecting children's health and development.