Effect of Soil Heavy Metal Contamination on Incidence of Nervous System Disorders

Human activities in industrialized economies lead to soil contamination with highly neurotoxic heavy metals accumulating in body tissues. Given the urgent environmental issue of heavy metal accumulation in soil and their toxicity to humans, the aim of the study was to analyse the available scientific data on their neurotoxicity. To achieve this aim, evidence-based papers from the relevant open databases over the past five years have been reviewed. According to scientific evidence, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury are considered the most common neurotoxic metals that pollute the soil. The heavy metal toxicity to nervous tissue has various mechanisms, such as the impairment of the cell cycle and metabolism and blood-brain barrier disruption. This leads to structural degeneration of the central nervous system. Cadmium, lead, mercury, and chromium can affect the development and functions of the nervous system, resulting in neurotoxicity that can be fatal in cases of acute poisoning. Screening, identification of populations with the increased risk of metal poisoning, and primary prevention in environmentally unfavourable areas are the appropriate actions to solve the problem of heavy metal contamination of the soil and their adverse effect on the body.