Talk:Toxic heavy metal

{{dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment | course = Wikipedia:Wiki_Ed/York_University/Applied_Plant_Ecology_Winter_2024_(Winter) | assignments = Grishaplantman | start_date = 2024-01-08 | end_date = 2024-04-20 }}

— Assignment last updated by Warmedforbs (talk) 01:25, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

The sentence:

• A toxic heavy metal is any relatively dense metal or metalloid that is noted for its potential toxicity, especially in environmental contexts.

is sourced to the reference

• {{cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Hongling |last2=Walker |first2=Tony R. |last3=Davis |first3=Emily |last4=Ma |first4=Guofeng |title=Ecological risk assessment of metals in small craft harbour sediments in Nova Scotia, Canada |journal=Marine Pollution Bulletin |date=September 2019 |volume=146 |pages=466–475 |doi=10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.06.068 |pmid=31426182 |bibcode=2019MarPB.146..466Z |s2cid=201095843 }}

That reference does not use the term "heavy metal" nor does it talk about density. I have removed the ref. Johnjbarton (talk) 17:54, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

In the text many refs have a "#name" format, but the corresponding anchor is not set. I could fix this by using the guidelines in Help:footnotes but that would change the style of the references.

Does anyone else want to fix them another way? Johnjbarton (talk) 18:26, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

I am changing the lead sentence based on this review:

• Baldwin DR, Marshall WJ (1999). "Heavy metal poisoning and its laboratory investigation". Ann Clin Biochem. 36 (3): 267–300. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.528.7546. doi:10.1177/000456329903600301. PMID 10376071. S2CID 26671861.
• "The term "heavy metal" is, in this context, imprecise. It should probably be reserved for those elements with an atomic mass of 200 or greater [e.g., mercury (200), thallium (204), lead (207). bismuth (209) and the thorium series]. In practice, the term has come to embrace any metal, exposure to which is clinically undesirable and which constitutes a potential hazard. Our intention in this review is to provide an overview of some general concepts of metal toxicology and to discuss in detail metals of particular importance, namely, cadmium, lead, mercury, thallium, bismuth, arsenic, antimony and tin."

I can provide other sources to the same effect, that is the density of the metal is not relevant. Johnjbarton (talk) 18:49, 25 August 2024 (UTC)