Abstract
The previous chapter, regarding animal poisons, focused on venoms and poisons that occur naturally and are deliberately synthesized by organisms. Most of the remaining chapters in this book focus on chemicals that are anthropogenic in nature and that cause environmental pollution as well as adverse health impacts. Pollutants can be naturally occurring compounds whose presence in the environment is altered by human activity, they can be chemicals synthesized or purified by humans from other sources, they can be by-products that form during such synthesis, or end products of the consumption of chemicals during human activities (e.g., the burning of fossil fuels).
The gods, who live on Mount Olympus, first fashioned a golden race of mortal men.
— Hesiod, Works and Days
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Notes
- 1.
* The significance of metals in ancient civilizations is exemplified in Works and Days, an 800-line poem written by the Greek poet Hesiod over 2,700 years ago, in which he laid out the five Ages of Man, three of which were metals (gold, silver, iron) and a fourth that was a metal alloy (bronze). Furthermore, when the Roman poet Ovid (first century BCE – first century CE) reduced the Ages of Man from five to four, the age that he dropped, the Heroic Age, was the only nonmetallic one.
- 2.
* Hazardous occupations (e.g., working in smelting operations) or lifestyle choices (e.g., smoking) can result in the absorption of metals from the atmosphere through smoke or fumes, but beyond these unique routes of exposure, aqueous exposure predominates for most metals.
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© 2016 Alan Kolok
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Kolok, A.S. (2016). Metals: Gift and Curse. In: Modern Poisons. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-609-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-609-7_9
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