The contamination of soil and water by heavy metals is a critical environmental concern due to the toxicity and persistence of these elements. Heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and chromium pose significant risks to human health and the environment, often entering ecosystems through industrial activities, agricultural practices, mining, and waste disposal. These metals can accumulate in the soil and water, contaminating the food chain and harming aquatic life, plants, and animals. The detection and quantification of heavy metals in environmental samples are therefore essential for monitoring pollution levels, assessing environmental risks, and informing regulatory policies. Traditional methods for analyzing heavy metals, such as atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), are highly sensitive but often require expensive instrumentation, skilled operators, and time-consuming sample preparation procedures. In recent years, spectroscopy has emerged as an innovative tool for assessing soil and water contamination by heavy metals, offering several advantages, including portability, ease of use, non-destructive analysis, and the ability to provide rapid results. The use of spectroscopy in environmental monitoring has revolutionized the field by providing costeffective, real-time, and high-throughput methods for detecting heavy metal contamination.
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Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry received 1781 citations as per Google Scholar report
