A review on particulate matter and heavy metal emissions; impacts on the environment, detection techniques and control strategies

Abstract

Population growth, Urbanization and Industrialization created many social economic environmental and health issues for Pakistan. Industries are major sources of environmental pollution specially water and air pollution due to lack of advanced technologies. This review mainly focused on the emission of heavy metals from industries, their detection methods which are available in Pakistan. Heavy metals are released into the environment through different industries and combine with other pollutants to form secondary compounds which are even more harmful to the environment. When these heavy metals combine with water and soil, they change the soil and water ecosystem functions, plant growth mechanism and disrupt the many other functions of soil. More so, groundwater contamination owing to these metals poses many serious health problems in humans and animals, and when this groundwater mixes with sea water, it threatens the health of aquatic lives and food species growing in water and bioaccumulated in the food chain of biological system. By using advanced detection, controlled and treatment technologies, ecosystem can be saved from the possible problem of heavy metal emissions and contamination.