Preface

Until a few years ago, the major concern of environmental toxicology was compounds known to be toxic in the environment at high concentrations. Control and inspection by regulatory agencies around the world, in addition to concerted action between different countries, have reduced the release of various toxic substances. However, new or recurring problems have arisen, and much of this is due to technological advances of recent decades in various areas such as agriculture, medicine and the electronics industry.

While these advances have undeniably provided an improvement in people's quality of life, they are also responsible for the emergence of new problems that affect the environment and compromise the health of current and future generations. Our modern lifestyle is based on the production and widespread consumption of chemical compounds in the most diverse areas, and although there are already movements that recognize the need for sustainable development and "green" production practices, these are still insignificant in the face of the size and seriousness of the problem.

Thus, the current reality is the presence of a wide variety of chemical compounds found in different parts of the environment, such as soil, water, air and sediment, affecting not only human health but also several other non-target organisms for these compounds.

*The Toxicity of Environmental Pollutants* consists of 13 chapters that address topics ranging from the toxicity of environmentally relevant compounds such as organo-compounds, metals and radioisotopes, discuss the consequences of the interaction of these environmental contaminants with organisms, such as endocrine disruption, and introduce methodologies for assessing environmental contamination as well as forms of remediation.

We hope that the book has managed to achieve its initial objective of consolidating information that can be used to improve care for the environment and resolve the consequences of environmental contamination for the different organisms that inhabit the planet.
