The tremendous increase in the use of heavy metal ions over the last few decades has inevitably resulted in an increased flux of metallic substances in the water resources. Presence of small amount of these metals in water resources poses unacceptable chronic and acute health risks due to their non-biodegradable and persistence in nature. Therefore, not only first generation is affected by heavy metal, but the affect also passes onto the second and third generations in terms of genetic abnormalities and birth defects. Heavy metals are toxic in both their organic and inorganic forms and affect human beings by damaging the nervous system, immune system, renal system and endocrine system when these are present above their permissible standards. To reduce the resource depletion rate and protect the sustainable development concept, recovery of heavy metals from water/wastewater becomes important.

Dr.Preeti Srivastava is an M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. She has done her Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.Her fields of interest are water treatment, preparation of nanosorbents and use of computer based simulation models for design.