摘要
The use of the term"heavy metal"is regularly questioned by the scientific community.Here,we followed the evolution(1970–2020)in the number of published papers including this term in their title.Thus,we can evidence a continuous,albeit sometimes stabilizing,increase especially in environmental journals.After several other warning opinions,we propose that it should be replaced in the scientific literature by terms like"metal","metalloid","trace metal elements"or"potentially toxic element".
