Toxic and genotoxic effects of hexavalent chromium in environment and its bioremediation strategies

Abstract

Chromium is one of the major inorganic environmental pollutants, which is added in the environment through various natural and anthropogenic activities and exists mainly in two forms: Cr(III) and Cr(VI). Cr(VI) is considered to be more toxic than Cr(III) due to its high solubility and mobility. It is a well-reported occupational carcinogen associated with lung, nasal, and sinus cancers. Thus, this review article provides the detailed information on the occurrence, sources of chromium contamination in the environment and their toxicological effects in human, animal, plants as well as in microorganisms, and bioremediation strategies to minimize the toxic effects.

Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Atmospheric Dry Deposition in Hamedan City

“…However, no significant difference was found between the heavy and moderate traffic stations. The presence of Cr in the samples can be related to combustion of fossils fuels and waste incineration (20,53). The obtained results are contrary to the findings of Li et al (24) and Kartal et al (39) who concluded that the values of Cr in urban street dust collected from Nanjing, China, and the street sediment samples from Kayseri, Turkey, were 67.13 mg kg -1 and 27.91 mg kg -1 , respectively.…”

Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal-Contaminated Sites: Eco-environmental Concerns, Field Studies, Sustainability Issues, and Future Prospects

“…HMs may cause oxidative stress by forming reactive oxygen species (ROS), which disrupt the antioxidants defense system and lead to cell damage in humans/animals; and in extreme cases can be fatal (Jaishankar et al 2014). For instance, hexavalent chromium (Cr 6+ ) has been reported to cause cancer in humans and damage cellular components during its reduction into trivalent chromium (Cr 3+ ), leading to the generation of free radicals that cause DNA damage (Mishra and Bharagava 2016). Therefore, the remediation of HM-contaminated sites is utmost important for environmental safety.…”

Pollution of Water Sources from Agricultural and Industrial Effluents: Special Attention to NO3ˉ, Cr(VI), and Cu(II)

“…Furthermore, Cr(VI) compounds at high concentration are extremely toxic to plants and retard their growth. Cr and Cr(VI) compounds can cause severe phytotoxicity which may result in reduction of seed germination, nutrient imbalance, degradation of pigments, decrease of antioxidant and enzyme concentration, and oxidative stress [76]. Indeed, Rout et al [77] demonstrated a 25% reduction in seed germination in the presence of 200 μM Cr(VI).…”