• Wei-Qun Lai, Ta-Chou Huang, Kung-Hao Liang, Yu-Fen Chang, and De-Ming Yang.
• Microscopy Service Laboratory, Basic Research Division, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
• J Chin Med Assoc. 2023 May 1; 86 (5): 459464459-464.

AbstractLead (Pb) poisoning can damage human bodies silently, without specific symptoms or conspicuous warning signs. To provide safe and user-friendly tools for detecting heavy metals at low concentrations, scientists have developed and optimized versatile biosensors. To practically employ the developed biosensors specific for Pb (eg, the optimized Met-lead 1.44 M1), smartphone applications designed for user convenience and are easily operable for the on-site detection of Pb in environmental water, drinking water, food, and blood/urine are urgently needed. To establish a monitoring system for home health maintenance, a portable device and useful apps installed on a smartphone can be integrated, and the data acquired can be sent to and stored in the cloud for further analysis and evidence preservation. With the high transmissions speeds for 4G and 4G wireless Internet, such a system can be applied for health protection; water-quality data can be provided by anyone and publicly shared for display on smartphone interfaces, alerting individuals of heavy metal contamination. In this review, we describe recent developments in heavy metal-sensing devices, including home health maintenance systems, which have been successfully and practically applied to prevent heavy metal Pb poisoning.Copyright © 2023, the Chinese Medical Association.

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