Heavy Metal: a misused term?

Olivier Pourret (1, 2) , Jean-Claude Bollinger (3) , Andrew Hursthouse

1 UniLaSalle
2 AGHYLE - Agro-écologie, Hydrogéochimie, Milieux et Ressources
3 UNILIM - Université de Limoges

The use of the term "heavy metal" is regularly questioned by the scientific community. Here, we followed the evolution (1970-2020) in the number of published papers including this term in their title. Thus, we can evidence a continuous, albeit sometimes stabilizing, increase especially in environmental journals. After several other warning opinions, we propose that it should be replaced in the scientific literature by terms like "metal", "metalloid", "trace metal elements" or "potentially toxic element".

Mots clés: Heavy metals; trace metal elements; metal; metalloid; potentially toxic elements

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Olivier Pourret, Jean-Claude Bollinger, Andrew Hursthouse. Heavy Metal: a misused term?. Acta Geochimica, 2021, 40, pp.466-471. ⟨10.1007/s11631-021-00468-0⟩. ⟨hal-03174937⟩