Rare earth elements (REEs) are metals including the 15 lanthanides together with Yttrium and Scandium. China is the leading country in their exploitation and production (∼90%). REEs are necessary for the production of several technological devices. This extended use of REEs has raised concerns about human health safety. In this review, we investigated the hazard of REEs to human health and the main gaps into the knowledge like as the need to develop further focused research activity. We categorized the research papers collected into eight main sections: environmental exposure, association of REEs with health problems, exposure to REEs due to lifestyle, REE exposure through the food chain, Gd contrast agents causing health problems, occupational REE exposure, and cytotoxicity studies of REEs. This review provided information about the exposome of REEs (the exposure of REEs to the human body), the existing research data, and the gaps that require attention and must be further investigated. More than one third of the literature about REE toxicity to human health concerns their cytotoxicity to human cell lines, while hair, blood serum and blood are the most studied matrices. The main results evidenced that REEs can enter human body via several routes, are associated with numerous diseases, can cause ROS production, DNA damage and cell death, and are more toxic to cancer cells than normal cells.

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The increasing use and demand of rare earth elements in many emerging technologies is leading to a potentially higher input to the marine environment. This study compared for the first time the effect of lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), dysprosium (Dy), and erbium (Er) to the microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin. The algal growth inhibition was investigated after 72 h of exposure. The median effect concentrations (EC50) ranged from 0.98 mg/L to 13.21 mg/L and elements were ranked as follows: Gd > Ce > Er > La > Eu > Nd > Dy > Sm. The comparison of predicted no effect concentrations (PNEC) for hazard and risk assessment with measured environmental concentrations showed that ecological risks deriving from REEs could be present, but limited to specific environments like estuarine waters. The results support evidence of actions to manage the REE impact in seawater environments, looking to improve the monitoring tailored to the different and dynamic nature of ecosystems.

The application of rare earth elements (REEs) in several areas, including high-tech technology, agriculture, medicine, and fuels, has made them an essential component of our everyday life. This extensive use of REEs in several technologies is expected to potentially impact human health. Even if several studies investigated the levels of REEs in human matrices, until now no standard method has been established for analyzing these elements in human matrices. The sample analysis should be of high quality, and the methods should be validated properly to ensure the quality of the procedure and traceability of the analytical data. In this research, we compared the validation and effectiveness of two different methods of sample preparation for human urine samples: a simple dilution of the sample (DIL) was compared with microwave assisted-acid decomposition (MIN) for tracing REE levels in human urine samples. The analysis was carried out by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The working conditions have been set in high-sensitivity mode. Accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated by spiking the sample matrix with known concentrations of analyte standards. Both methods showed adequate precision of repeatability and intra-laboratory reproducibility, with the DIL method showing better precision of both repeatability and reproducibility than the MIN method. The CVr% values of repeatability range from 1.5 to 12% for the DIL and from 8.4 to 16% for the MIN method. The CVr% values of reproducibility range from 6.2–23% for the DIL and from 8.6 to 24% for the MIN method. REE recoveries for both methods were very close to 100%. Both methods proved to be effective for the determination of REE levels in human urine matrices.