Assessment of the alkaline earth metals (Ca, Sr, Ba) and their associated health impacts

Abstract

This chapter provides an outline of alkaline earth metals’ contamination caused by the industrial and nuclear pollution. The assessment has been done for quantifying sources (viz. natural and anthropogenic) of the alkaline earth metals along with describing the physicochemical characteristics of calcium, strontium, and barium. The isotopes of strontium, calcium, and barium are found to have significant impact not only onto the human health but also the geoenvironment. In this view, estimation of risk assessment caused by these metals is mandatory and also described in this chapter. Notably, calcium is one of the most significant elements in human body in the form of bone skeleton. In contrast, strontium and barium are non-essential elements for human beings; however, due to their similar characteristics with calcium, they get managed to enter within the human body via accumulation onto the tissues and bones. Therefore, the quantification of strontium and barium is imperative that can be done by measuring ratios with respect to calcium (as, Ba:Ca and Sr:Ca).