Recent Research
Environmental Indicators of Metals Toxicity – Focus on Selenium Compounds
John Heinze and Karen Hagelstein, presented at SETAC North American 29th Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida, November 16-20, 2008.
The bioavailability and bioaccumulation of selenium and mercury compounds are often assessed together, as their environmental concentrations have been found to be dependent upon each other. This study concludes that because of selenium’s toxic properties, air emission regulations for coal power plants should focus on selenium as well as mercury; the Centers for Disease Control should expand the national biomonitoring program to include selenium; worker assessments of worst-case selenium exposures are needed in the aluminum, steel and metals recycling industries; and ecosystem monitoring is needed near coal power plants and metal-industry industrial sites focused on multiple metals and their effects, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium.