摘要：The use of heavy metals for various materials and chemicals has contributed to affluent living by humankind. Some of these metals are both essential and toxic. In response to recent attention given to vanadium, zinc, lead and arsenic arising from the hopes and fears they pose for human health, this paper reviews their environmental impacts as well as their presence, usage and action in living bodies. In Osaka, vanadium in airborne particles has been related to anthropogenic combustion processes. Zinc, which is essential but toxic for some aquatic organisms, has been detected at higher levels in waters with inputs from sewage treatment plants than in others. Zinc is thought to be a traffic-related metal ascribed to high concentrations in road runoff and airborne particles adjacent to a highway. Lead has proved to be more traffic-related by isotopic analyses of road runoff, road sediments, road paints, vehicular wheel materials and airborne particles. Arsenic has been detected in Osaka surface waters at levels lower than the environmental quality standard, but is characteristically high in groundwater and soil leachate depending on geologic conditions.
