Trace Elements

Contemporary legislation respecting environmental protection and public health, at both national and international levels, are based on data that characterize chemical properties of environmental phenomena, especially those that reside in our food chain. Thus, environmental and food quality are now matters of major public concern and therefore a system of metrology in trace analysis has recently been developed at the international level.

The authors review the key features of trace elements in soils, plants and the food web on which human beings survive. Currently, the quality of food is highlighted and has become a subject of broad studies of various disciplines. Minor inorganic constituents of food, trace elements, are of special interest due to their specific properties in both abiotic and biotic environmental compartments. Hence, there is a need for comprehensive information on the distribution of trace elements in given environmnetal compartments and organisms.