J.O. Nriagu – författare

The literature on the geology, chemistry, and biochemistry of phosphorus generally takes its mineralogy for granted. The in­ cidental information on phosphate minerals given in these texts is often obsolescent and inaccurate. The few mineralogical texts that have dealt comprehensively with the phosphate minerals have now become outdated, and typically present the essential information in a manner unsuitable for nongeological readers. This volume is intended as a ready reference for workers who require good basic information on phosphate minerals or their synthetic equivalents. The topics covered should appeal to geologists and geochemists, lithologists, environmental scientists and engineers, chemists and biochemists who have any interest in the intricate world of phosphorus. The hard tissues of many vertebrates and the many pathological calcifications consist mostly of phosphate minerals. The precipita­ tion of these compounds also plays a major role in the ecological cycling of phosphorus, and occasionally even dominates the behavior of many trace metals in many geochemical and biolog­ ical systems. Indeed, many pegmatitic phosphate minerals have acquired some notoriety because of the rarer trace metals which they tend to accumulate. With the commercialization of phosphate fertilizers since the early part of the 19th century, phosphate minerals have assumed an important role in industrial chemistry and agriculture. Clearly, the study of phosphate minerals is important from the economic, agricultural, environmental and (human and animal) health viewpoint.

The literature on the geology, chemistry, and biochemistry of phosphorus generally takes its mineralogy for granted. The in­ cidental information on phosphate minerals given in these texts is often obsolescent and inaccurate. The few mineralogical texts that have dealt comprehensively with the phosphate minerals have now become outdated, and typically present the essential information in a manner unsuitable for nongeological readers. This volume is intended as a ready reference for workers who require good basic information on phosphate minerals or their synthetic equivalents. The topics covered should appeal to geologists and geochemists, lithologists, environmental scientists and engineers, chemists and biochemists who have any interest in the intricate world of phosphorus. The hard tissues of many vertebrates and the many pathological calcifications consist mostly of phosphate minerals. The precipita­ tion of these compounds also plays a major role in the ecological cycling of phosphorus, and occasionally even dominates the behavior of many trace metals in many geochemical and biolog­ ical systems. Indeed, many pegmatitic phosphate minerals have acquired some notoriety because of the rarer trace metals which they tend to accumulate. With the commercialization of phosphate fertilizers since the early part of the 19th century, phosphate minerals have assumed an important role in industrial chemistry and agriculture. Clearly, the study of phosphate minerals is important from the economic, agricultural, environmental and (human and animal) health viewpoint.

of metal interactions with subcellular biochemical systems usually either are metabolites of the system affected (porphyrinurias) or represent some specific function of a cellular system being impaired (proteinurias). One typically finds a continuum of symptoms, from the subtle or so-called "no effect" bio­ chemical and physiological indicators of exposure to severe clinical disease and death. This continuum is the basis of much of the controversy since many health officials follow the traditional practice of applying the "threshold­ health-effect" concept in evaluating the problems of environmental exposure to metals. The past decade or so, however, has seen a vast increase in our understanding of the effects of elevated concentrations of toxic metals in local populations and ecosystems. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that the effects of the metals which occur naturally in the environment must be distinguished from those imposed by the pollutant fraction. This point was amply document­ ed in a recent study of cadmium intake and cadmium in a number of human tissues in Sweden, Japan, and the United States, which showed fairly conclu­ sively that the background exposure in Japan was about threefold higher than in the other two countries (2). One immediate implication is that any health ef­ fect studies of cadmium in Japan using control groups within that country are liable to underestimate the difference between the exposed and the control groups simply because of the the high "background" intake.