Ravneet Chug and Manishita Das Mukherji
Abstract
Heavy metals are natural components of Earths crust, have a comparatively high density and are toxic even at low concentrations. When inhaled at higher concentrations, above the prescribed limit set by various regulatory agencies, they can cause serious health effects. These metals are not biodegradable and tend to accumulate in living organisms (Kobya et al., 2005; Annangi et al., 2016). Their occurrence in the environment is due to their infinite usage in various industrial activities like chemical manufacturing, textile industries, painting and coating, mining, extractive metallurgy, nuclear and other industries due to their scientific significance and are released by them into the water bodies without pretreatment (Sethuraman et al., 2010; Al-Shannag et al., 2015, Lee et al., 2017). This discharge of wastewater containing high amount of toxic and nondegradable metals has undesirable health effects including mental retardation, carcinogenesis, failure of reproductive organs, malfunctioning of nervous system and tumor formation (Mahvi et al., 2008; Zouboulis et al., 2004). Chromium is the seventh most abundant element on earth and is one of the major pollutants of the environment which is accessible in nature as an odorless, steel grey hard metallic element.