Evaluation and Biomonitoring of Potentially Toxic and Rare Earth Elements

Dear Colleagues,

Pollution from potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is a widespread environmental issue affecting all environmental matrices. This is primarily driven by accelerated population growth, rapid industrialization, urban development, and other large-scale anthropogenic changes over recent decades. The health impacts of PTEs are well documented, including carcinogenesis (e.g., arsenic, cadmium), neurological damage (e.g., lead, mercury), renal and hepatic toxicity, and metabolic and endocrine disturbances, among others. Simultaneously, rare earth elements (REEs)—a group of 17 elements including scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides—are emerging as contaminants of growing concern. Their extensive use in technological, medical, and agricultural applications has led to increasing environmental concentrations and bioaccumulation within trophic chains. Although specific regulations for REEs are still lacking, they have been shown to disrupt various biological systems, inducing oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, and nucleic acid damage, and have been associated with carcinogenic, metabolic, and neurodegenerative outcomes. Given the continuous exposure of both humans and animals to PTEs and REEs—mainly through inhalation, dermal absorption, and dietary intake—there is a critical need for comprehensive biomonitoring strategies. These should include the assessment of lesser-studied elements in biological tissues, such as antimony, palladium, thorium, and thallium. Research must focus on their presence, distribution, and biological effects, employing robust risk assessment frameworks grounded in exposure levels and organismal responses.

This Special Issue aims to compile and compare global studies on human and animal biomonitoring of potentially toxic and rare earth elements, contributing to increased data across different tissues and providing an evaluation of their levels through updated risk assessment models, in order to improve public health policies.

We welcome original research papers, reviews, and short communications on topics including, but not limited to, the following keywords: potentially toxic elements (PTEs); rare earth elements (REEs); environmental pollution; human and animal biomonitoring; toxicological effects; risk assessment, oxidative stress;  public health.

Dr. Ángel Rodríguez Hernández
Dr. Manuel L Zumbado
Guest Editors

Dr. Carmen José Mateos Vega
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• potentially toxic elements (PTEs)
• rare earth elements (REEs)
• human biomonitoring
• animal biomonitoring
• environmental pollution
• toxicological effects
• risk assessment
• oxidative stress
• public health