Atmospheric Particulate Matter as a Carrier of Pb, Cd, and Ni: From Environmental Transfer and Bioaccessibility to Molecular Toxicity and Predictive Modeling

Description

Raluca Grădinaru and six co-authors review how airborne particles carry three toxic metals through the environment and into bodies, in a 2026 paper. The metals are lead, cadmium, and nickel. Dust and smoke move them from sources into soils, water, plants, and food. The review follows that whole path, from emission to harm inside cells.

The authors stress that total metal amounts mislead: what matters is how much the body can actually take up. Particle size, chemical form, and solubility shape that share. Inside the body, the three metals share some harms, such as oxidative stress and DNA damage, but differ in where they settle and how they act. The review argues for monitoring across many materials at once, cleanup aimed at the paths that matter, and prediction models checked against real data. It frames the problem as one health shared by people, animals, and ecosystems.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13608160