Rare Earth Elements as Emerging Contaminants in Environment: Sources, Fate, Toxicological Effects, and Remediation Strategies
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2027 | Viewed by 23
Editors
Interests: rare earth elements; heavy metal pollution; soil remediation; soil health; hyperaccumulating plants; emerging contaminants; bioavailability; omics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: rare earth elements; emerging contaminants; bioavailability; AOPs; environmental nanotechnology; enzyme-based remediation technology; isotope labelling and tracing technology
Interests: rare earth elements; environmental analytical chemistry; trace pollutant analysis; human health risk assessment; chemometrics; source apportionment; environmental monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The increasing global demand for advanced technologies, including electronics, renewable energy systems, and medical devices, has led to a significant rise in the mining, production, and application of rare earth elements (REEs). Consequently, REEs are now recognized as an emerging class of environmental contaminants. Their release into various ecosystems—through industrial effluents, mining activities, electronic waste disposal, and the agricultural use of REE-enriched fertilizers—poses a growing threat to environmental quality and public health. Alarmingly, less than 1% of REEs are typically recovered once dispersed into the environment, with over 90% dissipating into soil, water, and sediment matrices. Substantial research has documented the toxicological effects of REEs, including oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, and endocrine disruption at both cellular and organismal levels. However, significant gaps remain in the comprehensive assessment of human health risks associated with chronic, low-level REE exposure. Furthermore, the environmental fate of REEs, particularly their migration behavior, bioaccumulation potential, and dynamic speciation across different environmental matrices, requires further investigation to enable accurate ecological and health risk evaluations.
This Special Issue aims to address these knowledge gaps by presenting cutting-edge research on the following: (i) advanced analytical techniques for REE detection, speciation, and isotopic fingerprinting; (ii) biogeochemical cycling and fate of REEs in natural and anthropogenically impacted environments; (iii) the ecotoxicological effects and bioaccumulation of REEs in aquatic and terrestrial organisms; (iv) the development of effective remediation technologies such as phytoremediation, bioremediation, and advanced chemical stabilization; and (v) the establishment of robust environmental quality guidelines and risk assessment frameworks. By bringing together interdisciplinary contributions from environmental chemistry, toxicology, ecology, and engineering, this Special Issue seeks to provide a holistic understanding of REE contamination and inform sustainable management strategies for mitigating their environmental and health impacts.
Dr. Yong-He Han
Dr. Yiping Feng
Prof. Dr. Antonije Onjia
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- rare earth elements
- strategic resources
- emerging contaminants
- environmental fate
- speciation
- ecotoxicology
- remediation
- risk assessment
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