It is well known that health and disease patterns of societies and
countries evolve as a result of socioeconomic, technological, demographic,
cultural, environmental, and biological changes [103]. The
projected increase in the emission of toxic metals and metalloids
into the environment from the combustion of fossil fuels, the deposition
of electronic waste in landfills (global production was estimated
at 20–25 million t/yr in 2009 [104]) and on-going mining
activities combined with the recently observed increased incidence
rate of particular human diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes [5], autism
[105] and oropharyngeal cancer [106]) necessitate increased efforts to
be directed towards elucidating the complex biomolecular mechanisms
which link the exposure of humans to a certain environmental pollutant
with specific diseases [28,107]