Abstract
In the industry of plastics and dyes, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, the toxic effects of heavy metals have been reported during prolonged professional exposure. Heavy metals in the environment can enter the body orally, inhaled or by skin absorption. Unlike other toxins present in the environment, heavy metals accumulate in tissues because the body has no ability to remove them. Heavy metals in excess cause numerous metabolic imbalances. In cancer, heavy metal overload could be a stimulus for secretion of chemokines, for promoting oxidative stress and antioxidants inactivation, for altering cell signaling, for promotion and progression of tumorigenesis. Strategies to prevent accumulation of toxic metals, to decipher the pathophysiological mechanisms by which heavy metals affect cell metabolism, to increase excretion of toxic metals without removing essential minerals in the body is the subject of current researches. Keywords: heavy metals, dyes, plastics, skin cancer