Trace-Element Contamination of the Environment

by David Purves

It is hard to imagine a more concise summary of the prodigious work and voluminous publications in this field . . . This volume should be available to students at the undergraduate level, to those in law school, and to all seriously concerned about an extremely important problem. This review in Choice was just one of the many favourable comments that greeted the appearance of the first edition of this book when it appeared in 1977. Since then, there has been an explosion of interest in almost every aspect of research in environmental pollution. The aim of this new edition, however, remains the same i.e. to evaluate the global biological consequences of dispersal of trace elements, originally mined from localized limited deposits, in the environment. In treating the problems of metal contamination of the environment, the author considers the problems of environmental pollution involving metals and the problem of exhaustion of finite reserves of ores of metals, such as cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc, as aspects of a single global problem. A broad picture is presented of the overall process of dispersal of trace elements in the environment and the biological consequences of this process are documented with the aid of an intensive list of references. The book will be invaluable as a definitive reference source covering this field of interest for a wide range of people (environmentalists and conservationists, those concerned with management of resources and waste disposal, and agricultural chemists and soil scientists)

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

David Purves was a Scottish biochemist, playwright and poet, and a champion of the Scots language.

He joined the staff of the East of Scotland College of Agriculture in 1956, where he worked with the agricultural advisory service on problems associated with trace-element deficiencies and toxicities, and published a series of research papers on these problems over the period 1966 to 1986. This work was distilled in a scientific monograph entitled Trace-Element Contamination of the Environment, published by Elsevier in 1977 (with a revised edition in 1985). The book highlighted the implications for society and the biosphere of allowing metals to be dispersed beyond recovery, as environmental contaminants.

He was committed to the cause of the Scots language, taking a special interest in Scots spelling and grammar. His book, A Scots Grammar, published by the Saltire Society in 1997, was the first guide to Scots grammar to appear in print since 1921. A revised and extended edition was published in 2002.

Purves was elected Preses of the Scots Language Society in 1983 – holding the position until 1986 – and served as editor of Lallans, the only journal published entirely in Scots, from 1987 to 1995.

Two collections of his poems in Scots have been published: Thrawart Threipins in 1976, and Hert’s Bluid, Chapman, 1995.

Three plays in Scots, The Puddok an the Princess, The Knicht o the Riddils and Whuppitie Stourie, have been produced. The Puddok an the Princess won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1985 and subsequently ran to eight productions, including two tours of Scotland by Theatre Alba.

A translation and adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth into Scots (The Tragedie o Macbeth) was published in 1992, and was produced by Theatre Alba at Duddingston Kirk during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002.

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