Heavy Metal Exposures and the One Health Nexus: From Environmental Sources to Public Health and Ecosystem Risks

Heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) are persistent environmental contaminants originating from a wide array of anthropogenic sources, including industrial activities, mining, agriculture, and improper waste disposal. Their pervasive presence in soil, water, and air creates a continuous exposure pathway that inextricably links environmental health, animal health, and human health, thereby falling squarely within the One Health paradigm.The toxicological impact of these metals is profound and multifaceted. In humans, chronic exposure is associated with severe outcomes, including neurodevelopmental disorders, cardiovascular diseases, renal dysfunction, and various cancers. In animals both domestic and wild, heavy metal bioaccumulation leads to reproductive failure, immune suppression, organ toxicity, and population decline. Furthermore, heavy metals disrupt critical ecosystem functions by altering soil and aquatic microbial communities, inhibiting essential biogeochemical processes like nitrogen cycling, and reducing biodiversity.While extensive research has characterised the individual toxicity of specific metals, significant gaps remain. We lack a comprehensive, integrated understanding of how these contaminants circulate between environmental compartments (soil, water, air) and biological systems (wildlife, livestock, humans). Traditional risk assessments often examine human and ecological health separately, failing to capture the dynamic feedback loops that define the One Health approach. Emerging evidence highlights the need to understand:• The role of environmental metal pollution as a driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in environmental microbiomes.• The impact of low-level, chronic mixtures of metals on the health of sentinel animal species as early warning indicators for human risk.• The effectiveness of novel, integrated mitigation and remediation strategies that benefit all components of the One Health triad.This Research Topic aims to address these gaps by gathering the latest research on heavy metal contamination through an integrated One Health lens. We welcome contributions that explore the sources, fate, transport, and toxicological effects of heavy metals across the interconnected domains of environmental, animal, and human health.We invite submissions of Original Research, Review, Systematic Review, Methods, Hypothesis and Theory, and Perspective articles that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:• Environmental Fate and Transport: Studies on the sources, distribution, mobility, and transformation of heavy metals in environmental matrices (soil, water, air, sediment) and their bioavailability to organisms.• Mechanisms of Toxicity and Interspecies Effects: Research exploring the molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms of heavy metal toxicity in humans and animals, including comparative toxicology, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and genotoxicity.• Exposure Assessment and Biomonitoring: Novel methods for assessing human and animal exposure to heavy metals, including the use of sentinel species (e.g., wildlife, livestock) as bioindicators of environmental contamination and public health risk.• Heavy Metals and the Resistome: Investigations into the role of heavy metal pollution in co-selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in environmental, animal, and human microbiomes.• Integrated Risk Assessment: Quantitative and qualitative risk assessment frameworks that model exposure pathways and health outcomes across environmental, animal, and human populations.• One Health Mitigation and Remediation: Evaluation of sustainable, low-impact remediation technologies (e.g., bioremediation, phytoremediation) and intervention strategies that aim to reduce heavy metal burdens across all One Health domains.• Ecosystem Services and Public Health: Research assessing the impact of heavy metal contamination on ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, water purification) and the subsequent cascading effects on human health and well-being. Topic editors: Andrew Kataba, Tarryn Lee Botha, Collins NIMAKO Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81355/heavy-metal-exposures-and-the-one-health-nexus-from-environmental-sources-to-public-health-and-ecosystem-risks