Environmental fate and ecotoxicity of lanthanides: Are they a uniform group beyond chemistry?

Rare Earth Elements in the Soil Environment

“…Even though many medical and pharmacological studies have been reported with REE [152][153][154][155][156], so far, little attention has been given to ecological and environmental aspects related to the presence of REE in soils and their possible transference in the trophic chain [157,158]. Several studies involving effects of REE in experimental animals have reported an accumulation of these elements with time.…”

“…These results are relevant, since bioaccessibility studies performed for other elements show evidences to conclude that an overestimation of risk can occur if the risk evaluation considers only the total contents [164,165]. Adding to this, there is also the need for speciation studies, in order to identify the soluble and insoluble species for each soil environment [79,157].…”

“…There are evidences that REE may accumulate in the soil surface due to their sorption onto soil colloids [79,157], which consequently can lead to low bioavailability. This is directly affected by factors such as pH and the presence of organic and inorganic ligands [158].…”

Are the increasing amounts of gadolinium in surface and tap water dangerous?

“…nitrate and nitrite) concentrations. Although Gd constituted up to 20% of all the rare earth elements together, it was well below the threshold of toxicological effects considered likely to harm the environment (10,25).…”

“…The Gd emitted by cars will very likely have different toxicity and response to treatment processes to that from Gdbased contrast media, because different types of Gd are involved. Additives to glass are another source of gadolinium in the environment (10). Manufacturers of phosphors and of garnets for microwave application are also main users of Gd, but it seems unlikely that the Gd used for these purposes ends up at WWTPs.…”