'Heavy metal' - What to do now: To use or not to use?

摘要

Dear Editor, In 1980, Nieboer and Richardson proposed that the term "heavy metal" should be replaced by a more biologically and chemically significant classification of metal ions. According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (Duffus, 2002), the term "heavy metal" is considered imprecise at best, meaningless at worst, because there is no standardized definition for a heavy metal. Use of this term, is thus strongly discouraged.