ABSTRACT
There is widespread fear in our society of toxic substances lurking in the environment-substances that may be present in low concentrations or may even be unknown to science, but still capable of producing disease after years of exposure. This public fear is generally related to problems of pollution and has focused primarily on carcinogens, but potentially neurotoxic compounds will probably receive increasing attention in the years to come. People expressing such fears are often also notoriously skeptical towards scientific "authorities". This represents an extra challenge for scientists to precisely quantify the risks involved and to communicate their results to the general public. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some general aspects of inorganic neurotoxicants in water, soil, and outdoor air, and how these affect humans. Individual neurotoxic elements are dealt with in depth in other chapters of this book and therefore specific elements, where discussed, are used to illustrate general principles.
