Metals are important environmental pollutants and their toxicity is a problem of increasing significance for ecological, nutritional, and environmental reasons. These pollutants, ultimately derived from a growing number of diverse anthropogenic sources (industrial effluents and wastes, urban runoff, sewage treatment plants, boating activities, agricultural fungicide runoff, domestic garbage dumps, and mining operations), have progressively affected more and more different ecosystems. Even agricultural lands are progressively becoming enriched of metals due to long-term use of phosphatic...