Health effects of heavy metals include which statement?

• A. Cause Cancer and Disrupt Bodily Systems
• B. Heat From Power Plants Harms Species
• C. Unlined Landfills and Industrial Discharges
• D. Nutrients Leading to Algal Blooms

Answer: (A)

Heavy metals can directly affect human health by causing cancer and disrupting multiple bodily systems. Metals like arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury are toxic and can interfere with essential enzymes and cellular processes, generate oxidative stress, and accumulate in organs over time. This leads to a range of outcomes, from cancer risk to harm to the nervous, renal, cardiovascular, and immune systems, depending on the metal and the level of exposure. The other statements describe where contamination can come from or ecological effects, not the health impacts themselves: heat from power plants talks about ecological heat pollution, unlined landfills and discharges describe pathways of contaminants, and nutrients causing algal blooms refer to nutrient pollution and eutrophication, not the direct health effects of heavy metals.